Bequia Easter Regatta...
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ALL PHOTOS: WILFRED DEDERER On-line APRIL 2008 NO. 151 The Caribbean’s Monthly Look at Sea & Shore Bequia Easter Regatta 2008 See story on page 12
Transcript of Bequia Easter Regatta...
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APRIL 2008 NO. 151 The Caribbean’s Monthly Look at Sea & Shore
Bequia Easter Regatta 2008
See story on page 12
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St. Maarten’s HeinekenRecord-setting fleet ............... 11
Cuba, Continued…The route back east .............. 18
Angel Falls ForayVisiting Venezuela’s tepuis.... 24
St. Croix Calling!North shore beckons ............. 28
Paddleboard PassageGuadeloupe to Montserrat .... 30
Welcome GuestsBirds brighten voyage ........... 32
APRIL 2008 • NUMBER 151
DEPARTMENTS
Business Briefs ....................... 8
Regatta News........................ 14
Destinations ........................... 18
All Ashore… .......................... 24
Sailors’ Horoscope ................ 38
Island Poets ........................... 38
Cartoons ................................ 38
Cruising Crossword ............... 39
Word Search ......................... 39
Cruising Kids’ Corner ............ 40
Dolly’s Deep Secrets ............ 40
Meridian Passage ................. 42
Cooking with Cruisers .......... 46
Readers’ Forum ..................... 47
What’s On My Mind .............. 51
Caribbean Marketplace...... 52
Classified Ads ....................... 54
Advertisers’ Index ................. 54
Caribbean Compass welcomes submissions of short articles, news items, photos and drawings. See Writers’ Guidelines at www.caribbeancompass.com. Send submissions to [email protected].
We support free speech! But the content of advertisements, columns, articles and letters to the editor are the sole responsibility of the advertiser, writer or correspondent, and Compass Publishing Ltd. accepts no responsibility for any statements made therein. Letters and submissions may be edited for length and clarity. Compass Publishing Ltd. accepts no liability for delayed distribution or printing quality as these services are supplied by other companies.©2008 Compass Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication, except short excerpts for review purposes, may be made without written permission of Compass Publishing Ltd.
Caribbean Compass is published monthly by Compass Publishing Ltd., P.O. Box 175 BQ, Bequia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Tel: (784) 457-3409, Fax: (784) 457-3410, compass@vincysurf.comwww.caribbeancompass.comEditor...........................................Sally [email protected] Editor...................Elaine Ollivierre [email protected] & Distribution........Tom Hopman [email protected], Design & Production......Wilfred Dedererwide@caribbeancompass.comAccounting.................................Debra [email protected] Agents by Island:Antigua: Ad Sales & Distribution - Lucy TullochTel (268) [email protected]: Distribution - Norman Faria Tel/Fax: (246) 426-0861 [email protected]çao: Distribution - Cees de Jong Tel: (5999) 767-9042, Fax: (5999) 767-9003, [email protected]: Distribution - Hubert J. Winston Dominica Marine Center, 24 Victoria Street, Roseau, Tel: (767) 448-2705, [email protected]
Grenada/Carriacou/Petite Martinique:Ad Sales & Distribution - Alan HooperTel: (473) 409-9451 [email protected] Guadeloupe: Ad Sales & Distribution Stéphane LegendreMob: + 590 (0) 6 90 49 45 [email protected]: Ad Sales & Distribution - Isabelle Prado Tel: (0596) 596 68 69 71, Mob: + 596 (0) 696 93 26 [email protected]. Lucia: Distribution - Wayne BarthelmyTel: (758) 584-1292,[email protected]. Maarten/St. Barths/Guadeloupe:Distribution - Eric Bendahan (599) 553 3850Ad Sales - Stéphane LegendreTel/Fax: + 590 (0) 5 90 84 53 10 Mob: + 590 (0) 6 90 49 45 [email protected]. Thomas/USVI: Distribution - Bryan Lezama Tel: (340) 774 7931, [email protected]. Vincent & the Grenadines: Ad Sales - Debra Davis, Tel: (784) 457-3527, [email protected]/BVI: Distribution - Gladys JonesTel: (284) 494-2830, Fax: (284) 494-1584Trinidad: Ad Sales & Distribution - Jack Dausend Tel: 868) 634-2622 Mob: (868) [email protected]: Ad Sales & Distribution - Patty Tomasik Tel: (58-281) 265-3844 Tel/Fax: (58-281) 265-2448, [email protected]
www.caribbeancompass.com
ISSN 1605 - 1998Cover: Bequia Easter Regatta 2008 Photos: Wilfred Dederer
CALENDAR
APRIL1 - 6 BVI Spring Regatta, Tortola. www.bvispringregatta.org6 - 26 St. Thomas USVI Carnival. www.vicarnival.com11 - 13 Curaçao International Kite Festival. www.curacaokites.com12 Clean-Up Dive, Bonaire12 – 13 Triskell Trophy Regatta, Guadeloupe. www.triskellcup.com12 – 13 Banana’s Cup Regatta, Martinique. [email protected] 17 - 22 Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta. SEE AD ON PAGE 817 - 3 May St. Maarten Carnival. www.stmaartencarnival.com19 Virgin Queen Pizza Pursuit Race, BVI. Royal British Virgin Islands Yacht Club (RBVIYC), tel (284) 494-3286, [email protected], www.rbviyc.net19 Declaration of Independence Day. Public holiday in Venezuela20 FULL MOON22 Earth Day24 Guadeloupe to Antigua Race. Antigua Yacht Club (AYC), tel/fax (268) 460-1799, [email protected], www.antiguayachtclub.com25 - 27 Carriacou Maroon Music Festival. www.grenadagrenadines.com/fest.html25 - 27 Plymouth Jazz Festival, Tobago. www.tobagojazzfest.com25 - 20 St. Barth Film Festival, St. Barts. www.stbarthff.org27 - May 3 41st Stanford Antigua Sailing Week. www.sailingweek.com28 National Heroes’ Day. Public holiday in Barbados30 Queen’s Birthday. Public holiday in Netherlands Antilles. Windsurf race in Bonaire
MAY1 May Day/Labour Day. Public holiday in many places1 Ascension Day. Public holiday in some French and Dutch islands1 West Marine Atlantic Cup sets sail from Tortola, BVI to Bermuda. www.carib1500.com1 - 4 Big Drum Festival, Union Island, St. Vincent Grenadines2 Arrival of Ioumoulico Carib Canoe Project at Scott’s Head, Dominica2 - 11 St. Lucia Jazz Festival. www.stluciajazz.org5 World Environment Day8 Armistice Day. Public holiday in French West Indies8 ARC Europe sets sail from Jolly Harbour, Antigua, to Portugal. www.worldcruising.com8 - 12 Canouan Regatta. Canouan Sailing Club (784) 458-81979 - 11 Anguilla Sailing Festival. www.anguillaregatta.com9 - 12 42nd Antigua & Barbuda Sports Fishing Tournament. www.antiguanice.com/fish10 - 11 BVI Dinghy Championships, RBVIYC11 Dutch Antilles Windsurf Challenge, Bonaire11 Mothers’ Day, Public holiday in Puerto Rico11 - 16 Angostura Tobago Sail Week. www.sailweek.com12 Whit Monday. Public holiday in many places19 Clipper Round the World Race stopover at Port Antonio, Jamaica. www.clipperroundtheworld.com20 FULL MOON20 Independence Day. Public holiday in Cuba21 - 24 4th Annual Bonaire Jazz Festival. www.bonairenet.com22 Corpus Christi. Public holiday in many places22 Emancipation Day. Public holiday in Martinique23 - 25 34th Annual Foxy’s Wooden Boat Regatta, Jost Van Dyke, West End Yacht Club (WEYC), Tortola, BVI, tel (284) 495-1002, fax (284) 495-4184, [email protected], www.weyc.net23 - 25 BVI Music Festival, Tortola. www.bvimusicfest.net23 - 27 Around Guadeloupe Race. http://triskellcup.com24 - 31 Curaçao Dive Festival. www.curacaodive.com26 Memorial Day. Public holiday in Puerto Rico and USVI29 - June 1 Mount Gay Boatyard Regatta, Barbados. [email protected] Indian Arrival Day. Public holiday in Trinidad & Tobago30 Anguilla Day. Public holiday in Anguilla30 - June 1 4th Zoo Regatta, Gosier, Guadeloupe. www.zoo-regatta.comTBA Le Combat de Coques Regatta, Martinique. Club Nautique du Marin (Martinique). tel (596) 74 92 48, fax (596) 74 62 02, [email protected]
All information was correct to the best of our knowledge at the time this issue of Compass went to press — but plans change, so please contact
event organizers directly for confirmation.If you would like a nautical or tourism event listed FREE in our calendar,
please send the name and date(s) of the event and the name and contact information of the organizing body to
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[1500 words. Wilfred, if this needs a filler, let me
Panama Canal BacklogOn March 20th, Captain Pat Rains reported in The
Log Newspaper (www.thelog.com): “Dozens of cruis-ing yachts trying to transit the Panama Canal are being delayed at least four weeks. And because of a backlog of at least a hundred ships, the scheduling delays are only expected to get worse.”
Yacht transit agent Pete Stevens told Rains that,
Owing to a higher than usual number of transiting ships, the Authority of Panama Canal (ACP) has begun allowing only six yachts to begin transit through the canal per day: three starting from the Pacific side and three from the Caribbean. The ACP is scheduling yachts only for two-day transits, so they must anchor overnight in Gatun Lake and down-lock the following
day. He said yachts begin transit only on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays — finishing only on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
Normally, Rains reports, at the height of cruising sea-son, about 40 to 60 yachts per week would be transit-ing, but the new schedule allows for only about 18 yachts per week. Another agent, Tina McBride, told Rains that all the marinas and yacht clubs on both ends of the Panama Canal were packed with boats waiting to transit.
On March 1st, the ACP increased fees for yachts and ships to transit the canal. Yacht fees went up about seven percent, and ship fees increased eight percent. The ACP also announced possible new pilot-age fees for yachts starting March 1st if certain “defi-ciencies” were found, such as “inadequate sanitary facilities” on board (for example, if the boat’s head was not available for use by the pilot) or if the yacht’s line handlers “show an inability to relay the pilot’s instructions.”
For more information about the increased fees for yachts, called “hand lines,” visit www.pancanal.com and review Marine Notice to Shipping N-1-2008.
New Requirements for Cruising US?In February, Jimmy Cornell’s “noonsite” website
(www.noonsite.com/Members/doina/R2008-02-07-1) received a report about possible new rules affecting foreign-flagged vessels visiting the USA. According to noonsite’s source, after initial entry into the country, foreign-flagged yachts must now report to CBP (Customs and Border Protection, part of the Department of Homeland Security) each time they move from one port to another, or even from one berth or marina to another within one port.
Compass checked the CBP website (http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov) but found no recent news on this subject. Noonsite suggests that on arrival in the US, all foreign-flagged yachts should find out from the CBP officer who clears them what the reporting require-ments are while sailing in that country. Do any Compass readers have recent first-hand experience with this?
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Info & Updates
Yachts have been experiencing long waits to transit the Panama Canal
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Email: [email protected] Phone: +(599 9) 465 8936 Fax: 465 8941 www.curacaomarine.com
— Continued from previous page Coke Adds… 11 yearsNorman Faria reports: A Florida man who sailed a
yacht into Barbados two years ago was recently sen-tenced to 11 years in jail on that island. Sixty-one kilos (134 pounds) of cocaine plus firearms and ammuni-tion had been found on board.
The yacht — according to some reports a US-registered 30-footer called Leyla — was confiscat-ed. Terry Wayne Moore, 35, also had to forfeit Bds$57,000 (US$28,500) and US$4,630 cash Barbadian police say they found in a bag he and another man were carrying.
According to testimony in a Bridgetown court in early March, Moore, from Key Largo, retrieved the bags of the drug from under a holding tank in the boat’s bilge after Barbadian authorities threatened to do a thorough search of the craft.
Moore had sailed the boat into the Port St. Charles marina on the northwest tip of Barbados in May 2006, and then anchored it off St. James parish, also on the west coast. A day later, he and the other man were detained. Moore has been on remand in Her Majesty’s prisons in the island since then.
The guns seized were a Glock .40 pistol, and a .357 Magnum. A total of 135 bullets were also recovered. A Barbados magistrate gave Moore two six-year jail terms for the firearms, which will run concurrently with the 11-year drug sentence.
Abandoned Duck Reaches AntiguaYachting World magazine editor Elaine Bunting
reported on her blog (www.yachtingworld.com/yw/blog/elaine_bunting.html) on March 14th: “You may remember the story of Barbary Duck, the Westerly Corsair abandoned mid-Atlantic in December because her crew judged her in danger of dismasting. As many of us suspected at the time, the boat contin-ued to drift until it reached the other side of the Atlantic. She was salvaged and taken ashore in Antigua on 28 February.
“Barbary Duck was abandoned by owners John and Frances Weller from Northern Ireland when they discovered cracking of the chainplates. They aban-doned to a liferaft and were picked up by a Swan taking part in the racing division of the ARC rally, which was catching up from astern.
“The yacht continued to float and several other ARC crews came across it, one at close quarters at night, when Barbary Duck was unlit….
“When Barbary Duck was found off Antigua she had
not dismasted from the chainplates, as was previously thought, though by then the top section of the mast had broken. She had obviously been found and boarded previously, as a lot of equipment had been looted. She also sustained topsides damage in the process of being salvaged.
“This case follows two other yachts abandoned but not scuttled during the 2006 ARC which later washed up, one in the Caribbean and the other in the Azores.”
John Burnie reported on the search for the Bavaria 35 Arnolf, which was abandoned due to rudder failure in mid-Atlantic on December 11th, 2006, and arrived soundly afloat off Anguilla in early March 2007, in the January 2008 issue of Compass.
What’s With the Windjammers?Norman Faria reported in the November 2007 issue
of Compass: ” Up to press time in mid-October, efforts
were ongoing to try and get the 60-year-old Florida-based Windjammer Barefoot Cruises off apparent financial sandbanks.” What’s happened since then?
It’s hard to find out. Windjammer’s once popular Caribbean fleet of tall ships has not operated since September of last year. Paul Motter, editor of CruiseMates (www.cruisemates.com), an online cruise-ship guide, writes: “It is very hard to find solid legal infor-mation about Windjammer Cruises because so much of the company is in the hands of overseas agents in countries that do not require legal disclosure.”
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Long a part of the Caribbean sailing scene, windjammers lined the wharf at St. George’s, Grenada, in the heyday of the fleet
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— Continued from previous page Meanwhile, the venerable Yankee Clipper,
Polynesia and Mandalay have been held in port and only one ship in the fleet, the newer Legacy, is report-edly legally unencumbered. Despite repeated promis-
es on the company’s website, as of this writing, Windjammer has neither refunded many passengers’ payments for a number of cruises that never hap-pened, nor scheduled any future cruises.
Cruisers’ Site-ingsLong-time cruisers Bernie and Yvonne Katchor are
underway again, and Bernie’s new book of cruising adventures, Around the Next Bend, is due in book-stores this month. See their website at www.berniekatchor.com.
The February edition of the Caribbean Sailing Association (CSA) newsletter reports that the CSA website is being updated to be even more informa-tive than ever. Check out the progress at www.caribbean-sailing.com.
Good Old Boat magazine has recently posted an all-new website at www.goodoldboat.com. Some of
the major resources offered include the biggest list of boat owners’ associations on the Internet, an enormous list of marine suppliers, and the ever-popular “fixer-uppers” page with boats offered for less than US$5,000 and free!
New Carib Canoe ProjectHubert Winston reports: On May 2nd, the Ioumoulico
Carib Canoe Crossing project launched by the
KARISKO Association in Martinique aims to recreate the very first arrival of the Kalinago people to the shores of Dominica.
The re-enactment of the voyage on the May Day holiday weekend will commemorate how the pre-Columbian Kalinago people paddled up the
Caribbean chain of islands from South America.Dominica’s indigenous Kalinago tribe has been invit-
ed by KARISKO to send 15 paddlers to help man two 25-man canoes. These “Carib Canoe Warriors”, as they call themselves, have been training every week in the seas between Marigot and Atkinson in a smaller, riskier eight-man Carib canoe built by master canoe-builder Emmanuel “Napoleon” Sanford. (See http://picasaweb.google.com/mixx777/
CaribCanoeWarriors/. Be part of the welcoming team and celebrate in an old-time Koné Konla Welcome Feast on May 2nd in Scott’s Head/Soufriere. The following morning, try your hand at paddling these canoes in the waters of the bay or take part in local Dominican canoe races. Dominican historian Dr. Lennox Honychurch and two history professors from Université Antilles-Guyane in Martinique, Thierry L’Etang and Benoit Berard, will be there to explain the historical context of this project.
Yachts are invited to join the flotilla which will accompany the two canoes from Friday morn-ing to Friday afternoon from Grande Riviere in Martinique to Scott’s Head. All events are free of charge.
For more information visit www.dominicaheritage.org and http://www.karisko.org
‘Mister Baker’, Who Are You?Will the kind gentleman who recently sent in the
great oven-free boat bread recipe please contact [email protected]. I lost your name!
Welcome Aboard!In this issue of Caribbean Compass we welcome
aboard new advertiser Jordan Boats of the UK on page 51. Good to have you with us!
Will the historic Windjammer Barefoot fleet be revived?
Dominican Kalinago paddlers are practicing for May’s re-enactment
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Read in Next Month’s Compass:
The Ever-Evolving Culebra Regatta
Amazing Ile à Vache, Haiti
My Boat is Too Ugly to Steal! and more!
BUSINESS BRIEFSBumper Season for Marigot, St. LuciaThe Marina at Marigot Bay, St Lucia, celebrated a bumper 2007/2008 festive sea-
son when it welcomed a record-breaking number of super-yachts and mega-yachts. Not only did the marina enjoy 100-percent occupancy over the Christmas and New Year period, but it continued to see a large number of big boats on its docks well into February.
“The Marina at Marigot Bay became a New Year destination for mega-yacht owners and charter guests to rival St. Barths and Mustique,” said Marina Manager Bob Hathaway. He was also keen to emphasize that the Marina at Marigot Bay is an ideal year-round destination, not just a place for the holidays.
The Honourable Prime Minister Stephenson King took time out of his busy schedule
to pay a visit to Marigot Bay in February to visit the marina with his fiancée and go aboard the visiting 208-foot motor yacht, Polar Star, for a tour and chat with captain Charles DuGas-Standish. The visit afforded the Prime Minister the opportunity to see first hand the importance of the luxury yacht industry to St. Lucia and to hear feed-back about some of the issues affecting yacht-based visitors. Prime Minister King, who attended the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show in October last year, has been taking an active interest in yachting concerns.
For more information on The Marina at Marigot Bay see ad on page 26.
St. Maarten’s Marine Professional of the YearRobbie and Michele Ferron report: The Budget Marine Award for St. Maarten’s
Marine Professional of the Year 2007 was recently presented to Mike Ferrier.The marine industry on St. Maarten is attracting more yachts, providing more jobs,
and offering great financial contributions to the island. Every year, many people work hard in communicating the importance of the industry to the public and gov-ernment. Budget Marine, being highly involved, is happy to recognize key individu-als for their contributions, and annually gives an award to a person who has been a particularly outstanding asset to the industry. Previous winners are Sir Bobby Velasquez, Ernst Looser, Robbie Gilders, Kevin Gavin and Jeff Boyd.
Budget Marine, in collaboration with the Sint Maarten Marine Trades Association is particularly pleased to award the Marine Professional of the Year Award 2007 to Mike Ferrier who has excelled in providing better communication and understanding between the Sint Maarten government, many local establishments and the marine industry. Mike, owner of NAPA and a former commissioner in the island government, has served on the board of the St. Maarten Marine Trades association for three years.
The award was presented on March 5th, during a party hosted by Budget Marine. The annual party is to open the first day of racing for the Heineken Regatta, spon-sored by Budget Marine.
For more information on Budget Marine see ad on page 2.
Northern Lights Tests QuietestNorthern Lights/Lugger, a world-renowned manufacturer of marine generator sets,
is pleased to report the results of a major marine generator test that included the world’s most prominent builders. The conclusion regarding noise: Northern Lights sets are the quietest.
In 2007, an independently certified test (by TUV-EPS) was commissioned by Victron Energy. Marine generator sets were tested at 10kW and below (50 Hz ratings, 1500-3000 RPM).
Of the 19 generator sets tested from the world’s pre-eminent manufacturers, Northern Lights M773LW2 was deemed the quietest, at less than 65 dBA with no electrical load. The second quietest machine tested was also a Northern Lights — the M673LD2, at fewer than 66 dBA. Victron Energy notes in the report that “the sound levels measured should not be seen as absolute values but as relative values, for which we used the symbol ΔdBA, showing how much more or less noisy one gen-erator is compared to another.”
The only two Northern Lights tested proved to be the two quietest. Independent testing proves that the quietest gensets run at 1500 RPM. All Northern
Lights generator sets are built to run at 1500 RPM in their 50 Hz applications (a modest 1800 RPM at 60 Hz). Other key contributors to Northern Lights’ quiet design are mounts which dramatically reduce noise resulting from the transmission of vibration, and sin-gle-piece, cast-iron expansion tank/exhaust manifolds which minimize engine noise.
Said Puckett, “By using the best possible components, keeping revolutions low and keeping customer comfort at the forefront, we are able to build generator sets that are measurably quieter than comparable models.”
Northern Lights sound enclosures are one of many options that further customize Northern Light generator sets.
For the full study visit victronenergy.com/generatortest/. For more information on Northern Lights see ad on page 28.
Boat Kits for the CaribbeanIf you have ever thought about building your own boat, whether a tender for your
yacht, a day-sailer, powerboat, or even a cruising yacht, UK-based Jordan Boats can supply a plywood component kit to get you started.
Proprietor Alec Jordan spent much of his childhood in St. Lucia, and after returning there in December, found a great deal of interest in his five-year-old business. After checking Geest Line’s freight rates, he realized that kits could be delivered duty-paid at the ports served by Geest (St. Lucia, Barbados, Dominica, St. Vincent, —Continued on next page
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— Continued from previous page …Grenada, Antigua, St Kitts and Trinidad) at about the same price as shipping to European destinations.
Jordan works with prominent small-boat designers to provide kits for their designs, with nearly 60 different designs set up as kits, and several more in preparation. If one of the current designs does not suit, Jordan can create a new kit for your cho-sen design. Designers in Jordan’s portfolio of kits include Selway Fisher, Iain Oughtred, and Dix Design. Agreements are made with other designers as required.
The kits are constructed using either the stitch-and-tape method, made famous by the Mirror Dinghy, or clinker ply/glued lapstrake, which simulates the classic clinker construction. The plywood used for the kits is BS1088 Lloyds Type Approved gaboon/okoume marine plywood. Kits can also be cut in mahogany or the beautiful sapele ply at additional cost.
As the kits shipped from the UK include only the plywood parts, Jordan is making contact with timber suppliers in the Caribbean to supply the other wooden compo-nents required. Supplies of epoxy, varnish, paint and standard fittings can be obtained from the local chandlers in the Caribbean. If you want special brass and gunmetal fittings, Jordan can arrange shipment of these parts from the UK, as well as stainless steel and silicon bronze fixings.
Jordan’s website has a page giving fuller information for Eastern Caribbean cus-tomers, and much information about building, particularly the clinker ply method. If you want more information about stitch-and-tape, Jordan has produced a DVD.
For the Caribbean market, the kits are priced in both US dollars and Sterling. Kits for established designs can normally be landed in the West Indies about four to five weeks after Jordan receives payment for the order, depending on the Geest Line schedule. If you can get together with friends to include more than one kit in an order, significant savings can be made in the shipping costs.
For more information see ad on page 51.
New Power Yacht for St. Maarten’s No LimitsRecently appointed Caribbean representative for Mystic Power Boats in Florida,
yacht broker No Limits Yachts in St. Maarten - St. Martin, presented a new power yacht on March 8th. Members of the local and International press and guests joined owner Stew Leonard and builder John Cosker aboard the new 70-foot fast power yacht Carpe Diem to enjoy the last day of the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta.
Mystic Powerboats Inc. was founded in 1996 by John, a race boat pilot, and has specialized in the design, engineering and construction of high-performance power-boats. Working with both production boatbuilders and individual owners, the com-pany has created a wide variety of boats from 60+ mph outboard centre consoles to 200+ mph turbine-powered offshore catamarans. All models are designed in-house with a full-time staff of engineers.
The presented yacht is capable of speeds in the 80 mph range while maintaining maximum comfort and safety.
For more information visit www.NoLimitsYachts.com.
Special Regatta Transport ServicePeters & May and Sevenstar Yacht Transport have announced a new joint venture
to provide specialised logistics for the yacht racing community. This initiative will pro-vide racing teams and yachting associations with a total logistics package offering global solutions for yacht transport, spares positioning, refit work and multi-destina-tion racing programmes.
Jeff Drake, Managing Director of Peters & May Ltd and Richard Klabbers Managing Director of Sevenstar stated: “Yacht racing programmes are notoriously complex and time crucial, and their equipment costly and fragile. Efficient logistics management in this arena requires experience, skill and in-depth industry knowl-edge. Our new joint service will provide the customer with a service where one phone call does it all.”
For more information contact [email protected] or [email protected].
Happy Birthday, Horizon!Horizon Yacht Charters is celebrating its 10th Anniversary with all sorts of unique
Caribbean charter package specials. For details visit www.horizonyachtcharters.com.
New in CarriacouNot only does Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou, offer free WiFi to visiting yachts, but a new
laundry has opened next to the Alexis Supermarket. It’s open Monday to Saturday 0700 to 1800, offering speedy hot-water wash, dry and fold service. A book and DVD swap is also offered.
Antigua’s Sweet Cry Freedom FestivalIn the early 1990s, a music festival was staged in Antigua which became the
model for the various music festivals that have proliferated across the Caribbean. Between 1993 and 1997 a high-profile, international line-up of who’s who in vin-
tage and popular music from across the Diaspora performed at the festival, includ-ing Arrow, David Rudder, and the reggae ambassadors Third World; dancehall champions Buju Banton and Beenie Man; reggae crooners Beres Hammond and Diana King; Creole heavyweight Kassav; plus soca’s super-bands Square One, Atlantik and Burning Flames, among many more.
An integral part of the festival was the presentation of the “Cry Freedom Award”, which was presented in person to Stevie Wonder in 1997. Professor Hilary Beckles received the award in 2007. Third World, Osibisa, and the Right Honorable Vere Cornwall Bird Sr., among others, received awards in the past.
The rebirth of Sweet Cry Freedom Festival in May 2007 was well worth the wait. Title-sponsored by the Ministry of Tourism, from the opening acts — Flora Haywood, Swallow, General P, Etana and Teflon — to the current stars of today — Macka Diamond, Freddie McGregor, Barrington Levy, Shurwayne Winchester & Traffik and Cham — dynamic performances by all these artists brought to a climax the 40th Anniversary of the Stanford Antigua Sailing Week.
It is with great expectations that persons from near and far look forward to seven days of entertainment surrounding Antigua’s Sailing Week 2008, culminating in the musical climax that is Sweet Cry Freedom Festival ’08, scheduled for May 2nd and 3rd. This year, plans are for SCF ’08 to be re-located to the English Harbour area — even more convenient for the regatta-goers to attend!
For more information on Sweet Cry Freedom see ad on this page.
Round the World Race to Make Jamaica StopErrol Flynn Marina in Port Antonio, Jamaica, will be buzzing starting May 19th when
the participants in the Clipper ’Round the World Race start rolling in. Ten 68-foot yachts are racing, including a Jamaican entry. The racers will be enjoying several days of R&R after their leg from Panama and prior to heading for New York. As this is their only stopover in the Caribbean, Errol Flynn Marina is honored to host the fleet.
For details on the race visit clipperroundtheworld.com. For more information on Errol Flynn Marina see ad on page 20.
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IT’S MUCH MORE THAN A MARINA: IT’S HOME!
WE OFFER: • 24 hour security
• 120 concrete slip berths• Electricity: 220V/ 50amp; 110V/300amps
(single phase and three phase)• 16ft channel
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• Telephone hook-up• Shower facilities
• Wireless internet, banks and laundry within the complex• Pick-up and drop-off from major supermarkets
We monitor VHF channels 16 & 79A (alpha – American system)P.O. Box 4540, Airport Road, Sint Maarten, N.A., Caribbean
Tel: 599-5442309 Fax: 599-5443378Visit our website: www.sbmarina.biz E-mail: [email protected]
Over and over again our guests refer to our marina as their “Home”!Join us this summer and continue to enjoy the hospitality.
Grenada
TOBAGO CAYS MARINE PARK CELEBRATES TWO LAUNCHINGS
The harborside town of Clifton on Union Island in the Grenadines was the site of two “launchings” on March 8th. The first was the official handing over of the Tobago Cays Marine Park’s new patrol vessel. The second was the public announcement of the start of a project aimed at promoting sustainable livelihoods for persons working in and around the marine park. Both were thanks to the support of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).
The new park patrol vessel, a center-console Boston Whaler launch with a high bimini top, is powered by twin 200-horsepower Mercury outboards. This fast vessel will enable TCMP rangers to manage the day-to-day operations of the park, including law enforcement, more efficiently. Regular patrols are now done from 6:00AM to 6:00PM, with staff working toward eventual round-the-clock patrols.
Following the handing over of the patrol boat from the OECS to the TCMP was the formal launching of the Tobago Cays Sustainable Livelihoods Project. This is a three-year project aimed at providing environmentally friendly employment opportunities for low-income households in the Southern Grenadines. The project is expected to reduce unsustainable livelihood practices in the TCMP by promoting sustainable alternative livelihoods, thereby reducing negative impacts on the natural resources of the Tobago Cays. The project is funded by the OECS Protected Areas and Associated Livelihoods (OPAAL) Project, and will also benefit from in-house TCMP financial sources, and in-kind contributions from the private sector.
At the launching, TCMP Chairman Fr. Andrew Roache noted that those living in or near a protected area are best suited to protecting it. Parliamentary Representative Terrence Ollivierre added that the Southern Grenadines community must have a feeling of ownership for the park to motivate them to protect it by earning their live-lihoods sustainably.
The Tobago Cays Sustainable Livelihoods Project is the first in a series to be under-taken in six OECS member countries as part of the OPAAL Project, which is funded by the Global Environmental Fund, the Organization of American States and the Fond Français pour l’Environment Mondial.
Above: After the handing-over ceremony, the new park patrol boat goes for a spin
Below: At the launching of the Sustainable Livelihoods Project, Union Island Cultural Youth in Action evoke Southern Grenadines’ pride
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Record-Breaking 28th Edition
by Stéphane Legendre
Coming to St. Maarten for the largest sailing event of the Caribbean is always something a sailor looks forward to. The obvious questions every visitor has in mind are: How many boats this year? Am I going to see some exciting new
sailing machines? Will there be talented crews from which we can learn by observing maneuvering skills at buoy-roundings or starts?
Again this year I was not let down, as the organizers announced 280 boats regis-tered for the March 6th through 9th event. This was a new record number of entries, of which 128 were rented bareboats. That means all participants, whatever their sailing skills or financial means, are allowed to really compete. Boats ranged from the smallest “beach cats“ to Peter Harrison’s superb 115-foot ketch Sojana, a Bruce Farr design from the UK. More than ten Swans, half a dozen Beneteau 40.7s, as many J/boats and five Gunboat catamarans, among others, turned up to compete. Difficult to remember all the beautiful boats I saw!
“It’s great to have a record number: it shows we’re doing something right,” said Robbie Ferron, the chairman of the regatta’s steering committee. “But our emphasis has never been about getting bigger, only better. And I like to think we’re doing that as well.”
Being familiar with sailing events, I always think of the organizational effort involved, in terms of coordination both on land and on the water. From what I could observe, there were very few complaints on the water this year, although organizing around 20 class starts each day is not easy! Providing exciting evening festivities in three different locations ashore, with good water-taxi service, was another challenge, but a very efficient group of volunteers took care of everything with extreme avail-ability and smiling friendliness, right through the regatta’s duration. Renowned musicians from the Caribbean entertained the crowds each evening: Intwine from Sint Maarten, Alison Hinds from Barbados, El A Kru from Antigua and, to conclude on the Sunday, the famous Shaggy from Jamaica (Mister Lover himself, they say…).
The St. Maarten Yacht Club was the strategic place to be for more than one rea-son. First, this was the meeting place for everyone. Even if you were not expecting anyone, you were sure to bump into a friend at some stage and enjoy a beer (Heineken of course) and good food. Second, and more important, were the bridge opening times and leaving/entering boats. Even if motor yachts are not your cup of tea, watching those mega-yachts and observing their captains’ skill coming through the bridge, where little space is left on each side, is quite something. Even more interesting for us was to admire the racing machines coming through, their relaxed crews saluting us warmly as they entered. That’s an example of the Heineken Regatta conviviality.
Now a little about the races:Weather conditions were excellent, with sunshine and wind. Breezes were stron-
gest on the Friday, reaching 25 knots and slowly diminishing through the event — perfect for everyone.
On Thursday the 6th, the “Budget Marine Commodores Cup” was a prologue to the regatta and did not count for the final results. [See this month’s “Regatta News” on page 14 for a report.]
Friday’s Round the Island Race started at Simpson Bay and finished inside Great Bay, a fast and rough course, very exciting, followed by a wonderful party on Philipsburg’s waterfront promenade.
Saturday’s race-course was from a Simpson Bay start to the Anguilla Channel buoys and back to Marigot Bay on the French side of the island for a French-touch fête on the main square of Marigot village.
On Sunday the 9th, boats started at Marigot Bay and sailed into the Anguilla Channel. After the finish at Simpson Bay, the closing party and prizegiving ceremo-ny were held at Kim Sha beach.
The CBBS Cups, presented to the high scorers in the Caribbean Big Boat Series, went to Sam Fleet’s Swan 601, Aquarius, in the Racing category and to Sojana in the Racing/Cruising class. Phil Otis’s Cyclades 50, BVI Yacht Charters, was named the Top Bareboat Charter Boat in the fleet. The Spirit and Style Award went to Richard Woodridge and the crew of Triple Jack, who selflessly invited aboard fellow Multihull 1 class competitors from the trimaran Tryst, after their boat was dismasted early in the regatta. The Heineken Fun prize went to the crew of the bareboat Something Hot, a Beneteau 473. And the winner of the St. Maarten/Saint Martin Cup for Most Worthy Performance Overall was awarded to Benny Kelly and the crew of the TP 52, Panthera, which dominated the tough Spinnaker 1 class with a perfect series of five consecutive wins.
Happy organizers, competitors and public from both sides of the island were the conclusion to this 28th edition of the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta.
Even if you do not race, coming and enjoying the Heineken Regatta weekend is something any yachtsman cruising the Caribbean should experience at least once. Come and join in 2009!
For complete results visit www.heinekenregatta.com.
ST. MAARTEN HEINEKEN REGATTA 2008
The big Farr ketch Sojana on her way to winning first overall in the Caribbean Big Boat Series’ Racing/Cruising Class at St. Maarten Heineken 2008
www.caribbeancompass.com
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Yacht at Rest, Mind at Ease
WORLD CLASS YACHT LOGISTICS
Dare we say that despite the sea surge, it was… really swell?
Despite an unusually large ground sea and a resul-tant unfounded rumor that this year’s Bequia Easter Regatta might even be cancelled, a record-breaking number of entries in the international yacht division and neck-and-neck racing in the famous Bequia dou-ble-enders made this year’s Bequia Easter Regatta one of the best ever! And aside from that ground sea, it was brilliant sailing weather from March 21st through 24th. One race a day made up the three-race regatta, with a fun-filled Lay Day included, of course.
Forty-five yachts were divided into four classes, and the turnout of 11 in the increasingly popular J/24 Class was a new high for a one-design keelboat class in a southern Caribbean regatta. Although J/24s came from Trinidad & Tobago, Grenada, Barbados and Bequia, St. Lucian J/24s dominated the top three places. The victory of Attitude’s very young crew, led by Benjamin Todd, was well deserved.
In the Racing Class, former Bequia resident Richard Szyjan put his local knowledge to good use to cop top place with three bullets in a keenly competitive fleet of mainly Martinique-based boats. The Grenada-based Hobie 33’s win was in a class that included seven Surprises.
In the two Cruising Classes, boats came from the USA, Canada, Antigua, Grenada, Barbados, Trinidad, the UK and Germany.
Cruising Class I was exciting, with Petit Careme and Bloody Mary swapping first and second places on Days One and Two, and then Jaystar climbing from a sixth and a third place to take first in the last race. After a race from Admiralty Bay to Friendship Bay and back, and then a circumnavigation of Bequia, did the final around-the-buoys course present different challenges?
Cruising II also saw upsets in the Monday race. With Hot Chocolate coming into the last race with two firsts and Appleseeds right behind with two seconds, Kula grabbed away the top spot and the Antigua-based schooner Samadhi took second, while Appleseeds and Hot Chocolate had to settle for third and fourth respec-tively. Nevertheless, the last day’s results weren’t enough to shake Hot Chocolate and Appleseeds out of the top slots overall in this class.
Although it didn’t count in the series, a Single-Handed Race on the Easter Sunday Lay Day attracted an impressive 16 solo skippers to race around the island. They were divided into CSA Rated and Non-CSA Rated classes. The nail-biting CSA Rated combat saw Hallucine — skippered by Clippers Ship’s Nicolas Gillet — rounding the island in two hours, 11 minutes and 17 seconds, followed less than 15 minutes later by
Yann Lecam on Sonadio 3, culminating in a tie on cor-rected time for first place.
All yacht races were smoothly run by Race Officer James Benoit and Wayne Frank from Grenada, assist-ed by Rawle Sealy of the Barbados Yacht Club.
The Bequia Sailing Club would like to thank their main sponsors Heineken (St. Vincent Brewery), Mount Gay and Pepsi (Bottlers Ltd. St. Vincent), the SVG Ministry of Tourism, Youth and Sports, Digicel,
Mountain Top Water, Tradewinds Cruise Club, the Frangipani Hotel, Windward Island Plantation and C. K. Greaves, plus all business and private donors, and all the hardworking Sailing Club volunteers who made the 27th Annual Bequia Easter Regatta such a huge success.
—Continued on page 34
RECORD-BREAKING YACHT TURN-OUT
BEQUIA EASTER REGATTA 2008
Above: The J/24 Class, established at Bequia Easter Regatta’s 2005 event, attracted 11 enthusiastic regional competitors
Right: Trinidad’s renowned Rawle Barrow at the helm of Cruising Class 1 overall winner Petit Careme
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Easter Regatta, what ah slam! Two days before, all boat sailin’, tryin’ dis an’ testin’ dat but de forecast look like it go’ dampen t’ings. Dey say look out for 14- to 17-foot swells an’ gusty winds Thursday night through Friday. But Thursday night come an’ gone an’ ah ain’t see nothin’ more dan a little ground swell in Lower Bay.
Well, we got 45 yacht registered, ah record number. Friday mornin’, weather fair to fine, breeze nice.
Saturday is double-ender day, start at Friendship, finish off Paget Farm. Good breeze an’ clear sky, 28
boat registered. In de 28-foot class, we got Bluff, Confusion, Braveheart, Cloudy Bay an’ Spank; in Class 6 is Iron Duke, Trouble an’ Limbo Dance; Class 5A is Tornado, Nerissa J; 5B is Shamu, More Worries, Shannalou, Dem Say an’ Divine. Class 1, 2 an’ 4 is boat from Canouan, Mayreau an’ Bequia an’ dem name too
much fo’ me to write.Start 10:30, triangle off Paget Farm, two laps an’ ah
sausage. But boy, dem big boat start wid ah bang up to Hope Rock mark an’ down. Bluff an’ Confusion
fightin’ fo’ de lead. Well, yo’ know Confusion does go downwind like ah train, but today, dem boat got plenty steam. Dem burnin’ ah lot ah energy, pumpin’ jib an’ main on de reach to Adams mark. Upwind dey come, Confusion in de lead but not fo’ long. Bluff tek over. She say yo’ had yo’ turn, my turn now. She get in front an’ stay in front to de finish. Confusion second an’ Cloudy Bay third.
Sunday, weather nice, breeze nice, may de best man (or boat) win. Start Friendship, down West Cay, tri-angle in Admiralty Bay an’ end off Hamilton Point. Dey say de best man win so Bluff tek de honours, Confusion second an’ Braveheart third. Ah forget to mention dat Perseverance join de fleet today.
Monday reach. Wind ah bit lighter an’ de sun hot like hell (dem preacher say down dere real hot but ah don’t believe dem because ah don’t t’ink anybody ever go an’
come back!). Well, dem start downwind to West Cay, Cloudy Bay in de lead. Dey turn de cay leave dem rest bundle up under dey. Up de track to Semple Cay mark, all dem boat gone leave Bluff, like if she draggin’ fish-pot. Ah swear to God she hook up somet’ing an’ ah say to meself, she dead today!
But not to be. She get she act together. Dem rest boat gone: she tack an’ come to de shore an’ leave dem goin’ south. When dem come back, all boat togeth-er — what ah race! On de road line wid vehicle. People fo’ so. Everybody shoutin’ an’ whis-tlin’. I in de boat so ah can’t tell who backin’ who. But ah know ah lot ah bettin’ goin’ on: some-body go’ cry later! Tack fo’ tack, dem boat go round de Semple Cay mark makin’ room fo’ each other. T’ings hot today! Downwind now an’ ah fight back up to de Hamilton mark an’ what ah fight it was. Ah can’t explain it on paper, only wid me mouth. But Bluff win, beatin’ out Cloudy Bay by ah nose! Ah could tell yo’, is one ah de best races an’ closest finishes ah have ever seen. An’ dat’s ah fact. —Continued on page 41
BEQUIA EASTER REGATTA 2008
T’ings HOT in Double-Enders’ Class 7!
by Orbin Ollivierre
Main photo: Boats from Classes 1 and 2 demonstrating the traditional sprit rig’s ability to windwardInset left: Wayne Gooding’s pretty Confusion placed second overall in Class 7
Lennox Taylor’s Braveheart was helmed by his son Gladwyn and crew included members of New York’s Manhattan Yacht Club
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REGATTA NEWS
Sunshine and Swans Love Budget Marine Valentine’s Regatta
The 16th Annual Budget Marine Valentines Regatta held February 16th and 17th saw 20 boats racing in four classes in perfect weather on the outskirts of Five Islands Harbour, located next to Jolly Harbour, Antigua. Jolly Harbour Yacht Club once again hosted the regatta, which was sponsored for the 16th year by Budget Marine Caribbean Chandleries. “The boats, including three big Swans who promise to return with friends, were a tremendous sight, and the thought of up to six Swans battling it out next year is awesome.” reports JHYC Commodore Brian Turton.
The Club’s Youth Development Programme was helped with EC$2,000 raffle money raised during the Regatta Evening, which over 200 people attended at Jolly Harbour Golf Club. JHYC, already working with
the Junior Achievers Club, is now actively involved with the Antigua Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme with plans to take children to Guadeloupe and Barbuda this spring.
In Racing One Class, a battle was fought between the two Swan 56s Deneb and Albireo. The crews rep-
resented the talent of Antigua (Stan Pearson/Neil Forrester on Deneb) and that of Guadeloupe (Albireo was skippered by John Burnie). The racing never lacked excitement, and the local crowd was delight-ed by the Antigua win.
In Racing Two Class, Shawn Malone on Likkle Hugo won over Bernie Wong’s High Tension b-mobile and Sven Harder’s Flying Tiger. In constant close combat in Cruising Class, Colin Jones’ Cydia took the honours.
However, the most competitive class was Cruiser Racer Class in which very close and mixed results pro-duced an unlikely winner for those who believe that races are won by equipment and not by sailing skills. The ten-boat class included many modern designs with carbon sails, carbon masts and the newest equipment. But the winner was a long-keel boat with an aluminum mast and sails past sell-by date, made by a little-known sailmaker. The class and overall win-ner was the Rhodes Bounty (41 feet long with a 27-foot waterline) Sunshine, whose skilled crew and skipper Hans Lammers repeated previous regatta wins. Second in this class was Geoffrey Pidduck in Biwi Magic, and Rick Gormley, the modest sailor from Jolly Harbour with only a few years of racing under his belt, came in third on Elethea.
Three races were run on each day, giving a total of six to count. All races were windward-leeward with an offset buoy. Race officer Stephen Parry from the Solent directed the racing, and Will Rudd would have done the protests if there had been any. Brian Turton
led an onshore events team that produced lively par-ties. At the prizegiving, Budget Marine Sponsor spokes-man Robbie Ferron explained how Budget Marine was particularly enthused to sponsor racing that is con-stantly interesting, challenging and still easily manage-able for Caribbean sailors.
Double Bullets Hit Target in Budget Marine Commodore’s Cup
As a prelude to the 28th St. Maarten Heineken Regatta, the Commodore’s Cup race filled seven class-es with 47 boats and kicked off the Heineken action on February 6th, in St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles.
In staunch easterly winds of 25 knots, the sailing was spirited and images memorable. There was Elandra, the Beneteau First 40.7, wiping out at the leeward mark and struggling with a spinnaker takedown as many of her competitors slipped past, and MAD IV, the Grand Soleil 50, suffering the same mishap with her kite flailing away at the masthead. No one who saw it will forget the sight of the Melges 24 French Connection in a near-knockdown with her big red asymmetric spinnaker in the water as her crew scram-bled to windward to try and get her back upright!
But no crew had more of a handful than the team aboard the J/109 Vrijgezeilig, which faced not one but two fire drills: a spinnaker that exploded into three sections and, worse, a man-overboard situation when a crewman went into the drink after yet another broach. Happily, the soaked sailor was swiftly recov-ered and Vrijgezeilig resumed racing.
In order to keep the carnage to a minimum, the race committee chose to conduct a pair of races, rather than the three originally scheduled. Typically, before and after the brief, passing squalls, there were patches of light air and holes in the breeze, with plenty of opportunities for substantial gains for savvier crews.
Several teams proved they were at the top of their games, winning their respective divisions with a pair of victories: in Spinnaker 1 Benny Kelly’s TP 52, Panthera, stood atop the field with consecutive bullets; in Spinnaker 2, Clay Deutsch’s perennial campaigner, the Swan 68 Chippewa, matched the performance with a straight-set victory. Carlo Falcone’s plywood rocket, Caccia Alla Volpe, won the 11-boat Spinnaker 3 class with a first and a second. Arnaud de Meillac’s A40, sailing styl’caraibes, recorded the same score to win Class 4, narrowly beating Sergio Sagramoso’s Beneteau 40.7, Lazy Dog. In other action, the division winners in the remaining three Commodore’s Cup classes were also decided by crews who posted a pair of victories: Robert Armstrong’s J/100 Bad Girl in Spinnaker 5; Clive Llewellyn’s MAD IV in Spinnaker 6; and Ian Hope-Ross’s Beneteau First 36s7 Kick ‘em Jenny in Spinnaker 7.
World Champion Wins Inaugural Casa De Campo Sponsor Challenge
Showing the match race skill that led to his being crowned as the reigning World Champion, Team Pindar’s Ian Williams from Great Britain has won the Dominican Republic’s first Casa de Campo Sponsor Challenge.
Ian and his team of Denis Cartier, Sue Harvey and Mick Byrne bested US Virgin Islands native and Alinghi alumnus Peter Holmberg in an exciting first-to-three-points series held on February 15th in the harbor at the Casa de Campo Resort. Also assisting Ian in the prac-tice rounds were Jim Read, Jose Rodriguez, and Eduardo Otero. These six and six others racing with Holmberg attended a match race clinic in the morn-ing held at the Casa de Campo Yacht Club, then fol-lowed theory with practice out in the club’s J/24s.
While the scores went three-to-one in Williams’ favor, the racing was close throughout as these two veter-ans of the World Match Racing Tour sparred in a tight course area set by PRO Pete Lawson and his team at the mouth of the Casa de Campo Marina. Conditions were perfect with shifty eight- to 12-knot tradewinds providing plenty of opportunity for close action. This action was a little too close at times, with collisions occurring between boats, rocks and marks. —Continued on next page
‘The Swans… were a tremendous sight, and the thought of up to six Swans battling it out next year is awesome’
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— Continued from previous page Holmberg led in the first beat of the second match
but then ran hard aground on a rock off the breakwa-ter, allowing Williams to sail off to his second win in the series. In the critical third match, Holmberg fought back to lead Williams around the first mark by a length, but then Williams touched the mark in his rounding, prompting umpire Dobbs Davis to give a penalty to the Briton, who could not close the gap enough to try and offset the foul. And in the fourth and final match, it was Holmberg’s turn again for con-tact, this time surging on a wave while chasing Williams back to the start to hit the transom of the Deutsche Bank boat, prompting a penalty for Holmberg.
“This was a great start towards building interest in match racing here,” said World Match Racing Tour director Scott MacLeod, who was providing shoreside commentary.
“It was great to have this opportunity to put on this exhibition of match race sailing in this fantastic place, and I hope this starts a trend towards more interest and events,” said Williams.
Holmberg, too, was supportive of the efforts made by CCYC Commodore Gianfranco Fini to organize this exhibition match as part of the larger Casa de Campo Regatta, which started the next day. “I hope this shows the people here in the Dominican Republic how exciting match race sailing can be, how accessi-ble it is to spectators, and hope that this will grow into more events in the future,” said Holmberg. “There is tremendous potential here.”
Sweethearts of the Caribbean Draws Classicsand Wannabes
The Sweethearts of the Caribbean Regatta was raced out of Soper’s Hole, Tortola, BVI, on February 16th and 17th, hosted by the West End Yacht Club www.weyc.net. Mike and Di Kirk, the relentless orga-nizers of this fun weekend event did a great job. With
32 entries, there was a day of schooner and single-handed racing and a day of Classic Boat (boat design more than 30 years old) and Classic Wannabes (boat design more than 20 years old) racing, along with double-handed racing. Class winners were:
Schooners 46 to 60 feet: Kai Kanani, Todd DuffSchooners 61 to 100 feet: Liberty, Robin PittsSinglehanders: Kahuli, Tracy ObertClassics 26 to 34 feet: Frequency, Ryan WalshClassics 35 to 45 feet: Rascal, Adrian Sinton Classics 46 to 60 feet: Rainbow Maker,
Vincent Barnett
Classics 61 to 100 feet: Liberty, Robin Pitts Classic Wannabees: Cayenne III, Tony SanpereCouples: Wildfire, John HayesFor full results visit www.vistandpoint.com/content/
view/890/35/.
Inaugural Grenada Classic Yacht RegattaWest Indies Events, the organizer of the first Grenada
Classic Yacht Regatta, is pleased with the first edition held February 22nd in the waters surrounding the Spice Island, and expects that next year the number of entries will be more than five!
Jan Roosens, who started the Classic Regatta in St. Maarten, has partnered with Fred Thomas in Grenada
to set up this new event. Jan said that everything went smoothly and sailors had a lot of fun.
Kenny Coombs, organizer of the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta, which now has around 60 partici-pants, recalled having only six or seven entries at the first edition of that event — each regatta has to start somewhere! Coombs was in Grenada as advisor to Grenadian James Benoit, who was the Race Director of the first Grenada Classic.
The official opening party and skipper’s briefing took place at the Grenada Yacht Club on February 21st, and the yachts were hosted at Camper & Nicholsons’ Port Louis Marina in St. George’s Lagoon, where the award giving party was also held. On Saturday the boats raced to St. David’s Harbour on Grenada’s south coast, where BelAir Plantation and Shipwrights hosted lunch and an evening barbecue while a live band entertained sailors and locals. Another key sponsor was the Maritime School of the West Indies.
Crowds followed the regatta action from Grand Anse Beach and other viewpoints, while a bareboat
charter catamaran with sailing enthusiasts came all the way from St. Lucia to enjoy the race.
With two classes and four special trophies, virtually everyone was a winner. Fred Thomas’s 1962, 53-foot yawl Apollonia won Classic Class and the Spirit & Style Trophy, and Ivan Jefferis’ 1889, 44-foot gaff cutter Thalia won Vintage Class, Most Photogenic and Overall. John Whitsett’s 1979, 76-foot schooner Raindancer took away the Perseverence Trophy and Mike Jerrold’s century-old Lilymaid won Best Dressed Crew.
The next Grenada Classic Yacht Regatta will be held from February 19th through 22nd, 2009. For more information visit www.ClassicRegatta.com.
St. Lucia’s Sir John Compton Memorial & Diamond Dash The St. Lucia Yacht Club celebrated that island’s
Independence Day, February 22nd, by resurrecting the traditional Prime Minister’s Cup Race, initiated in the time of the late Sir John Compton. Using a new trophy for the occasion, it was re-titled the Sir John Compton Memorial Trophy with the kind consent of Lady Janice Compton, who graciously agreed to present the trophy at the prizegiving on completion of the race at the SLYC.
Along with this annual event it has long been an intention to race to Diamond Rock off the southern end of Martinique. Diamonds International was pre-pared to sponsor the race in order to produce an annual regional sailing event.
A three-part event ensued: A race/cruise to Le Marin, Martinique, from St. Lucia’s Rodney Bay, starting at 10:00AM on the 22nd and docking in the huge marina at Le Marin on arrival. The combined second and third races started on the 24th at 10:00AM using the Friday’s finish line as a starting line. The second race was the return to Rodney Bay via Diamond Rock. The “finish” of Race Three, the Le Marin to Diamond Rock leg, was self-timed, creating a “line honours” race for the fastest yacht to reach this point irrespective of handicap. —Continued on next page
Raindancer in Sunday’s race from St. David’s, on her way to collect the Perseverance Trophy at St. George’s
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— Continued from previous page Winning Race One, from Rodney Bay to Le Marin,
was Bernard Johnson’s 52-foot Morgan, Breezeaway. Race Two, from Le Marin back to Rodney Bay via Diamond Rock was won by Edgar Roe on the J/24
Loose Cannon. Race Three, the Le Marin to Diamond Rock dash for Line Honours was won by Breezeaway with a time of 1 hour, 23 minutes, 30 seconds.
The Sir John Compton Memorial Trophy 2008 was pre-sented by Lady Janice to Bernard Johnson of Breezeaway. Johnson also accepted the Diamond Dash Trophy 2008, presented by Sharon Leonce-Valmont of Diamonds International. Other sponsors included Peter and Company and Rain Forest Sky Ride.
For more information visit www.stluciayachtclub.com.
Jet-Ski World Championship Held in GuadeloupeStéphane Legendre reports: The 11th annual running
of the Karujet event took place from February 28 to March 2nd, at Viard Beach, Petit Bourg in the Basse Terre district of Guadeloupe. This event consists of three competitions:
• Freestyle competition, leading up to the world championship.
• Amateur race, using the same itinerary as the pro-fessionals, but shorter courses.
• World championship for professionals and experi-enced amateurs.
The world’s best jet-ski freestylers gave a demonstra-tion on the Thursday evening, and the freestyle com-petition took place at the Pointe-à-Pitre downtown harbor on the Friday evening. Many local spectators showed up and were impressed by what could be done with water bikes. The favorite, and also last year’s winner, was Lee Stone of the USA, followed by the Italian Valerio Calderoni. Placing third was a pretty
young girl from Russia, Katharina Kolotnova.Friday started with a very serious pilot’s briefing, dur-
ing which safety recommendations were many, owing to the very adverse weather conditions: 30 knots of wind, gusting rain squalls at 40, accompanied by a
three-metre swell in Les Saintes Channel. Important security measures were taken by both local authorities and race security teams, and they proved efficient as no major mishaps were reported at the end of the three days.
The Friday start line was at Gosier Beach, where spectators gathered to see the wonderfully noisy machines. Professionals had to finish the 120-kilometre
course and the amateurs a 68-kilometre course. Less than an hour was needed to complete the race for those monsters, which seem to jump from one wave to the other. There were mechanical failures and physical injuries, but both mechanics and doctors
were on hand to solve the problems.Saturday was the long race that rounded Basse
Terre. Those of us with sailboats would need a good day to do this, whereas the machines took less than two hours. Just another world!
The Sunday epilogue took place off the Viard Beach for a circuit race, cheered on by 30,000 spectators (compared to 15,000 last year) who were also enjoy-ing the beach parties and the many free activities the organizers provided. Spectacular again — and I must say, for someone who doesn’t know much about this sport, very impressive.
The overall winner for the amateurs was Bruno Vaïtilingon from Guadeloupe, brother of last year’s win-ner, Davy Vaïtilingon, who this year broke his jet ski the first day and had to retire from the entire competition.
The World Championship winner was Cyrille Lemoine from France, who also won two years ago.
This event was honored by the presence of the jet ski world federation president and Mauro Ravenna, famous promoter of international events inoffshore racing.
Eric Paulin and Jacques Boucher, the co-organizers of the Karujet event, are pleased and have plans for the future, with one of their goals being to have more participants from other Caribbean islands. This year nine countries and islands were represented: Italy, Russia, USA, Spain, Hungary, Germany, France, Martinique, and Guadeloupe.
Come and join the party next year. Even if you are not keen, it is really fun to see!
For more information visit www.karujet.com.
Teams Race for Charity in St. Maarten HeinekenThere are countless ways to enjoy the St. Maarten
Heineken Regatta. From beach cats and bareboats to Grand Prix racers and multihulls, this annual Caribbean festival of yachting has a niche for every sailor. For a couple of special crews aboard the Farr 49, Synergy, and the Beneteau Oceanis 473, Team Goldendog, the event provided another opportunity. It gave them the chance to race for a grander purpose, and use the regatta to raise funds for great causes.
Take Team WAVE (Women Against Violence Everywhere) aboard Synergy, the all-women team based in Curaçao, which came together for the first time last October for a regatta in Bonaire. Team lead-er Lea de Haas said the 14-member crew “had much to learn” about the 49-footer, which was built in 1974. “Everything was new,” she said. “We hadn’t trained before and it was challenging learning a boat with several headsails and an asymmetric spinnaker. Luckily, the winds were light. But the group was so enthusiastic and no job was too big for anyone. It was in Bonaire that we became a team. And we had such a great time and learned so much, that we decided to do the 2008 St. Maarten Heineken Regatta.”
But de Haas says Team WAVE’s goals go beyond their personal aims. “The idea was to do the Heineken for our own fun but also to raise money for a group of very young teenage girls in Curaçao who are preg-nant, homeless and out of school. Kas Bruder Pius is an organization that takes care of these girls by giving them a place to live and assisting in their education so they can learn a profession and take care of their child.” One member of the Team WAVE crew works at Bruder Pius, which is totally dependent on donations and volunteers. The Nagico Marine Insurance Company has helped out with a new headsail for Synergy. Other sponsors include Premier Management Partners, HBN Law, DAE, the Curacao Tourist Bureau, Swissport, and the MCB Bank.
Team WAVE sailed Synergy in the Spinnaker 6 class. Weather conditions were heavy, with gusts regularly up to 23 knots and sometimes reaching 47 knots. Rain… —Continued on next page
Getting air time at world jet-ski championship in Guadeloupe
Bernard Johnson, center, and his Breezeaway crew accepted the Compton and Diamond trophies at the St. Lucia Yacht Club
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— Continued from previous page …and high swells regularly wetted the deck of Synergy and the team as well! Team WAVE was the only all-women crew in their class. Team WAVE fin-ished 12th in class and can look back on a very suc-
cessful event in their effort to raise money for young teen mothers.
For more information, or to make a donation, con-tact Charlotte Hartmans van de Rijdt at [email protected].
Another sailor who used the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta as a launching pad for good deeds was Connecticut yachtsman Jeffrey Sochrin, who this year sailed his fifth Heineken. Sochrin competes in the bareboat class with his mates from the Milford Yacht Club, and he always calls his entry Team Goldendog. Of course, there’s a story behind the name.
“It started with a pretty simple notion,” Sochrin said. “We wanted to sail competitively, but with a cause. I’d always wanted a Golden Retriever and I ended up rescuing and adopting a dog back in the States.
So it seemed kind of natural to identify homeless ani-mals and find them good homes. And it just took off from there.”
Last year, Sochrin’s Beneteau was covered with stickers from the 27 sponsors who now back Team
Goldendog (for more on the program, check out their website at www.teamgoldendog.org). In addition to working with the Yankee Golden Retriever Association, they always try to address the problem of stray ani-mals on St. Maarten, an island Sochrin and friends have come to respect and love. Specifically, they contribute to a program that neuters and spays dogs and cats. “We’ve met a lot of great people here,” said Sochrin. “And this notion has taken off in ways I couldn’t have imagined.”
Of course, you don’t need to have a cause to sail in the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta, other than the desire to have some “serious fun”!
BVI Springs Ahead with Spring RegattaThe BVI Spring Regatta has the British Virgin Islands
all a-buzz from April 1st through 6. We’ll have a report in next month’s Compass!
For more information visit www.bvispringregatta.org.
Management for the Superyacht CupPeter Wykeham-Martin and John Grandy of GWM
Racing Limited have been appointed to run the on-water aspects of The Superyacht Cup events planned for 2008. The calendar includes the SYC Transatlantic Challenge starting on April 8th, the SYC Palma from June 11th to 14th, and the SYC Antigua from December 10th to 13th.
John Grandy is an ISAF-appointed International Race Officer and Peter Wykeham-Martin is a quali-fied IRC measurer; working together as GWM Racing they have decades of experience in professional regatta management, balancing the needs of par-ticipants, sponsors and organisers. Patrick Whetter, SYC Event Director, says: “Peter and John will bring a new level of professional race management to The Superyacht Cup. The feedback we have received from some owners and captains has suggested we should introduce an IRC class as well as the cruising class, and GWM will be invaluable in introducing this new element.”
For more information visit www.thesuperyachtcup.com and www.gwmracing.com.
Guadeloupe’s Triskell Trophy Set for April 12th and 13th
The Triskell Trophy Regatta for cruising sailing boats and sport catamarans will take place in Guadeloupe on April 12th and 13th. It is an official race of the Federation Français de Voile, organized by Association Le Triskell. The regatta is part of the cham-pionship for cruising boats and beach cats organized by the Ligue Guadeloupeenne de Voile. A minimum of five races will take place over the two days.
For more information contact the Association Le Triskell at [email protected], phone Jean-Michel Marziou at (690) 49 57 57, or visit www.triskellcup.com.
Martinique’s La Banana’s Cup to Honour Jean TrudoThe Yacht Club de la Martinique takes great pleas-
ure in inviting one and all to compete in La Banana’s Cup on April 12th and 13th. On this occasion, Martinique’s yacht-racing legend Jean Trudo will cele-brate 47 years of racing and in his honour the 16th edition of this event has been dubbed “La Banana’s Cup — Jubilee Jean Trudo”.
All racecourses will be on the waters in the Baie des Flamands of Fort de France, with one race on the Saturday and one on Sunday. Classes will include Racing, Surprise, J/24, Racing/Cruising, Cruising and Multihull, as well as Laser, Sunfish, Tempest, Soling and Beach Cat. Both days’ races are followed by barbe-cues and live bands at the yacht club.
The committee desk opens on Wednesday, April 9th, and the skipper’s briefing is that evening. The event will be run under the patronage of Peter Holmberg from St. Thomas. Customs and Immigration clearance is available at Sea Services, Rue Ernest Deproge, Fort de France, (596) 70 26 69.
For more information contact Yacht Club de la Martinique [email protected], (596) 63 26 76.
A New Name for a Great Youth RegattaA long-standing feature of the regional youth-sailing
calendar, the BVI’s Chief Minister’s Cup International Youth Regatta has been renamed the Premier’s Cup International Youth Regatta. This year’s event will be held from July 11th through 14th at Nanny Cay Resort and Marina, Tortola.
For more information contact Tom Gerker at (284) 494-2830.
Girls just wanna have serious fun. Team WAVE from Curaçao raced the Farr 49 Synergy in Spinnaker Class 6 in St. Maarten to raise funds for homeless pregnant teens
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Having purchased some fresh produce at Nueva Gerona, and after further inspections by the Guardia Frontera, our despacho was reissued with authority for our return from Isla de la Juventud to Cayo Largo.
Before heading back east, however, we detoured to visit the dive sites to the west. Here we hit the jackpot. Caleta Playa Francesa is a beautiful, well-protected west-facing bay with water clear as gin, a white sand beach and not another soul in sight. The daily visiting dive boat pottered around in the distance, dropping the punters off to explore the wall. Some local fisher-men sold us a bucketful of lobsters for a ridiculously small sum. We stayed for a week, until the strong tradewind flow subsided and we began our long jour-ney back east. It is worth bearing in mind that at this point we were 1,300 miles west of our starting point in Antigua and very conscious of the fact that our return was going to be uphill all the way.
Juventud to Cayo LargoFor the first two days we were lucky and sailed for
much of the time as we worked our way around the north of Juventud, but from then onwards we motored to windward through an endless chain of islands. For the most part, the outer cays are like Cayo Largo, that is, long thin strips of sand, covered in dense scrub and lying with their eastern ends about 15 degrees north of an east-west line. Thus, the south sides of these cays offer little protection from the tradewinds and, as the outer reefs are low with large gaps, potential anchor-ages can be too windy and choppy for comfort. The obvious alternatives are the northern shores and the
inter-island channels, but the former are almost always too shallow and the latter suffer from the mos-quito problem.
Detailed study of the Cuban charts suggests that the vast shallow area to the west of Cienfuegos, which includes Cayo Largo and Isla de la Juventud, will offer hundreds of superb anchoring opportunities. Our experience proved otherwise. We found three beautiful anchorages and numerous others that were good in light winds. We also found a number that looked good on paper, and are described with enthusiasm by Nigel Calder’s Cuba: A Cruising Guide, but which now involve unmarked reef and channel passages that we consider to be downright dangerous.
In spite of our reservations, we enjoyed our return passage to Cayo Largo where we were again inspected and stamped by various officials, and visited by a dif-ferent sniffer dog. This one disgraced itself by peeing with excitement in the galley. Jeanette screamed at the top of her voice, “Get that bloody animal off my boat!” and despite its handler’s complete lack of English, the message was clear and the offending article was removed immediately. The men from the Ministry of the Interior were full of abject apologies and the rest of the paperwork was completed in double-quick time. More stamps, more glue and we were clear to proceed to Cienfuegos, in the middle of the south coast and another port of entry.
During the course of the final inspection before we left Cayo Largo, it occurred to me that the Cubans… —Continued on next page
Southwest CubaPart Two:
Fascinating… and Far!by Christopher Price
DESTINATIONS
The long return trip from Cuba’s south coast to Antigua was broken by a refreshing stop in Jamaica
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— Continued from previous page …really don’t know very much about cruising sail-boats — and why should they? Hummingbird is quite a large catamaran with a lot of internal space. Although they walked around the accommodation, it didn’t occur to anyone to look in the engine rooms, each of which is large enough for two adults to stand up and work in. Similarly, no one ventured near the foredeck, where there are two lockers each large
enough to house three Haitian refugees! The men from the Ministry of Agriculture had asked to see our refrig-erator, where they discovered our offensive salami. But they did not ask to see the freezer, which is in the other hull. (For this we were very grateful, because its contents sustained us for a large part of our six-week stay in an area in which good-quality meat was almost impossible to find.)
Before leaving Cayo Largo we refueled and had no problems with fuel quality. This was just as well, because we ended up motoring a very high proportion of the 1,150 miles back to Antigua.
Cayo SalThe first part of the eastward journey was somewhat
disappointing as we motored to the south of the chain of cays, but inside the reef. It was windy, shallow and choppy, with no comfortable anchorage for a lunch stop. However, at the end of the day and the end of the chain, we again hit the jackpot — a superb anchorage on the north side of Cayo Sal. It has the clearest water
we have ever seen anywhere: the hook went down ten feet into flat white sand, I let out 80 feet of chain and, when snorkeling off the stern, the anchor could be seen clearly 130 feet away.
It is probable that there were a couple of lighthouse keepers man-ning the powerful light on Cayo Guano del Este (just think about that one for a moment) about eight miles to the east; apart from them it was unlikely that there was another soul within 30 miles of us. As we left the following morning, the wind was backing to the north-east and our isolated bit of para-dise was becoming untenable.
CienfuegosAnd so to Cienfuegos. A narrow
but well-marked deep-water chan-nel leads into a huge enclosed bay that is a major port. Around it is a lot of heavy industry with distant views of a nuclear power station, two oil refineries and a vast cement
works. But the city itself, with a population of 150,000, appears to be generally clean and unpolluted. It has a very large central square surrounded by some impres-sive public buildings, an attractive pedestrian shop-ping area and, best of all, a small and very busy public market. To top it all, across the road is an official cam-bio, or currency exchange, with a few hustlers outside offering even better rates.
Others have described, in previous Compass articles, Cuba’s extraordinary dual currency system. I will not, therefore, go into details; it is enough to say that if a visitor can exchange pounds, euros or Canadian dol-lars for local pesos, then instantly the cost of living — at least for things like fruit, vegetables, meat and fish — reduces by 95 percent. Yes, 95 percent! The combination of market and cambio meant that we were
like pigs in the proverbial.In Cienfuegos we hired a car for a couple of days,
mainly in order to go to the city of Trinidad, which is the second oldest city on this side of the Atlantic. The car was fairly new, in good condition and for the most part the condition of the roads was also good. This was not surprising because there was very little traffic and frequently, once outside the towns, we drove for miles without seeing another vehicle. Trinidad is an absolute gem and anyone visiting south central Cuba should make a detour if it is not already on the itinerary.
Checking out of Cienfuegos and Cuba proved to be a fairly lengthy process, but by now we expected nothing else. We advised the marina’s resident officials at 0830 that we wished to leave that day, but by 1030 nothing had happened so a little gentle chasing seemed appro-priate. We were told that the system required that they be given four hours notice of our departure, so they sat in their office for another two hours before bestirring themselves! By early afternoon we were ready to go, and our first objective was Port Antonio in Jamaica.
We expected a hard slog to windward but, much to our pleasure and surprise, the wind was north of northeast and once out of the lee of the coastal moun-tains we made the fastest 24-hour passage we have ever made.
Port Antonio, JamaicaJamaica was, to us, a revelation. The Errol Flynn
Marina in Port Antonio is probably the best we have ever been into; on the other hand it sits in the middle of a town that is probably the poorest we have found in the Caribbean. We hired a car with the intention of driving over the Blue Mountains to Kingston and back round the east coast main road, but the quality of the roads was so bad that we had difficulty in maintaining a 20-mile-per-hour average and we aborted the trip near the top of the Blue Mountains. Nevertheless, a fascinating experience.
We found a good supermarket a couple of miles out-side Port Antonio and in the town center there is the best fruit and vegetable market we have found in the Caribbean. We left Jamaica with the fridge and freezer well stocked for what we anticipated would be a long, hard haul to the east.
To Puerto RicoOur plan was to cross the Windward Passage to the
western end of Haiti and then adopt Bruce Van Sant’s Gentleman’s Guide to Passages South strategy of mak-ing relatively short inshore hops at night when wind and current would be least unfavorable. —Continued on next page
‘Trinidad is an absolute gem and anyone visiting south central Cuba should make a detour if it is not already on the itinerary’
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— Continued from previous page We were amazed to find that on leaving Jamaican wa-ters the wind dropped almost entirely, so we pointed toward Cabo Beata, the southernmost point of the Do-minican Republic, and just kept going. A few miles to the northwest of the cape we found a beautiful and well-protected anchorage miles from anywhere. The only company we had were pelicans by the hundreds and a few fishermen camped on the beach a mile away.
After two days we set off to hop along the coast of the DR, but again, as soon as we rounded the cape we found near perfect conditions for motoring east, so we aimed at Puerto Rico and kept going. Our intention was to check in at Mayaguez and then work our way along the south coast of the island in true Van Sant fashion. The great guru believes this is one of the most difficult parts of his “thornless path to windward” and he usually allows 11 days for the west-to-east passage, hacking his way along the coast a few miles at a time. Our extraordinary weather window remained open and we motored on along the Puerto Rican coast, finally stopping at Ponce. We had cov-ered 302 miles, almost entirely due east, in 52 hours! By our standards a lot of fuel had gone down the tubes, but we were far, far ahead of our schedule and we had traveled in complete comfort.
We loitered briefly around Puerto Rico and then spent several weeks wafting gently through the alphabetical jumble of S, US and B VIs. Our passages were largely smooth and uneventful and when, at last, we sailed back into Falmouth Harbor, Antigua we had com-pleted a round trip of 2,990 miles.
The Two Main QuestionsSince we returned, our cruising friends have asked
us two main questions. First, they want to know if this lengthy round trip was
really worthwhile. Our answer is a resounding “yes”. We set out, not to visit Cuba as tourists, but to explore the vast areas of shallow waters and cays on the south side of the island, and to make an assessment of them as a cruising area. Although we did not cover such a large area as origi-nally intended it was a new and fascinating experience that was well worth the effort and planning that went into it. However, we found that as a cruising area the western end of the south coast, the Golfo de Batabana, did not quite match up to our expectations. Well-protected and attractive anchorages were fewer than we expected and this was
largely because of murky tidal waters and, at least in January, mega-millions of mosquitoes.
Ashore, as expected, we found Cuba to be fascinating. The Cubans themselves were generally very friendly and went out of their way to be helpful. There were few signs of affluence, but also very little evidence of real poverty. Almost everyone looks very healthy and it is one of the proudest claims of the Revolution that they have the world’s highest ratio of doctors to population.
The Revolution also claims very proudly that adult
literacy has risen to a level as high as anywhere in the world; indeed the general level of education is very high, with more than 60 universities serving a popula-tion of just over 11,000,000. This casual visitor found these claims rather surprising. In the cities and towns that we visited, we saw not a single person reading a book, newspaper or magazine. In Cienfuegos we passed one poorly stocked second-hand bookshop; the only other reading material we saw on sale was guide-books in tourist souvenir shops.
Being a communist state, Cuba will claim a very high level of employment, but in reality this means that although nearly everybody has a job, by no means
do they have much to do. I was frequently reminded of the guy who said, “Sometimes I sits and thinks, some-times I just sits.” There seems to be a lot of that going on in Cuba.
For a police state, we saw remarkably few uniformed police — just three of them guarding a bank delivery in Cienfuegos. Of course, there may have been many more in plain clothes. On the other hand, facilities connected with tourists, for example the marinas and hotels we visited, were infested with security guards
who did very little other then sit about for long periods before ambling around aimless-ly. They were, however, the only people that we saw carrying firearms.
The second question asked of us by fellow cruisers is “Would you do it again?” and here the answer is “Probably not”. This has noth-ing to do with disappointment with Cuba; it is more to do with a time/benefit assessment. Our trip to Cuba involved a round trip of nearly 3,000 miles and the time taken would have been much longer — and less pleasant — if we had not been extraordinarily lucky with the weather on the way back. If Cuba were, say, only 300 miles away from our usual Eastern Caribbean groove, then we would go time and time again. But sailing well over a thousand miles before the fun starts is a long way to go and I doubt if we will do it again.
The picture is different for cruisers coming south from North America. A relatively short downhill run, either from the Bahamas or Florida, to round the western end of Cuba would open up a whole new world.
I would also suggest that any Eastern Caribbean cruisers heading for Panama should consider an alter-native to the standard Venezuela, ABCs, Colombia route. A departure from any of the Leeward Islands towards Puerto Rico, the DR and then Cuba will offer a safe, secure and fascinating new experience. The trip to Panama could then be completed via Jamaica and/or the Cayman islands, then reaching to the Canal. If we were heading for the Pacific, then that is the way we would go — and in the process devote more time to the fascinating and deserted waters of southern Cuba.
Christopher and Jeanette Price live aboard their 50-foot catamaran Hummingbird. For the last six years they have sailed the Eastern Caribbean, mostly between Tobago and Puerto Rico.
Well-preserved buildings including the Teatro Tomas Terry and Colegio San Lorenzo surround Cienfuegos’ central Parque Marti
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www.antigua-marina.com [email protected] Tel: +1 268 460 6054 Fax: +1 268 460 6055
Falmouth Harbour Marina
It is another day aboard our Tayana 42, El Shaddai, on this wondrous journey up the Mánamo River in the Orinoco Delta, Venezuela. This is very much like taking a trip in a time machine, as the farther we go upriver the farther back in time we seem to travel.
The morning stillness is broken only by the occasional drone of a 40-horsepower Yamaha engine at full throttle on the back of a river taxi heading south along the east-ern shore of the river. Not only does the sound of the motor break the time warp; half a day in our engine room working on an alternator problem confirmed we are actually in the 21st century. The romance of time travel is dispelled and our sense of self-dependence sharpened by our failed alternator, making it necessary to bring our portable generator into service for battery charging.
To free ourselves from all the clutter and noise, we get in the dinghy and head into a small tributary, a caño. We have not sighted a monkey on this trip and we go with high hopes of finding our first troop.
The tidal current was against us, even 20 miles inland. The noise of the dinghy motor discouraged us, as we were sure that it would cause any wildlife to move out of sight before we arrived at their location. Consequently, as we moved in deeper searching for fruit trees, we shut off the motor. Paddling quietly forward, we moved into an area of berry trees like those we had seen monkeys feeding on in the past. They peel away the outer husk and eat the crimson fruit.
As we rounded a bend in the caño, we heard rustling in the trees and spotted a Capuchin monkey. It was not running from us, instead, it climbed out on a limb where it could get a better view of these intruders! We sat in the dinghy with Harry and Melinda from Sea Schell, somewhat startled by the sight of the monkey. As we sat quietly waiting and watching, three or four more appeared. They studied us for
a moment and then quickly moved back into the forest out of sight. When, after a long wait, they did not return, we began drifting out to the main
river. The rest of the caño trip was uneventful, with the exception of a toucan that landed in a tree near the waterway. It was time to head back to our boat and move to our next anchorage. —Continued on next page
DESTINATIONS
off the motor Paddling
Mánamo River Adventure Part Two:
by Bill Bate
Guest lodges on the Mánamo River provide rustic accommodations in superb natural surroundings
by Bill Bate
HYACINTHS AND MONKEYSHINES
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— Continued from previous page We travelled cautiously and to our delight the river widened and deepened, allow-
ing us to increase our speed. As we got farther upstream, the vegetation on each side of the river was dense and forbidding but lush and green, with occasional mauve-flowered trees and water cacao.
As we rounded a bend, we could see construction on both sides of the river. We later learned the Venezuelan government was building a school and hospital here. On our port side was a large blue, rectangular, metal-clad building. Behind that was a rustic but clean and well-organized set of buildings — clearly the Boca de Tigre Lodge. To starboard was a fairly large village. We pulled up just beyond the lodge and anchored with Sea Schell (another Tayana 42), just beyond Alouette. Before long we were unexpectedly joined by a third Tayana, Sea Gypsy. We were more than amazed that there were now three Tayana 42s in this remote location.
We were welcomed ashore by an English-speaking family who told us they had moved to the area about 17 years ago as refugees from Guyana. This friendly family immediately began sharing gifts from their garden and small orchard where they
were growing mangoes, lemons, coconuts and bananas. We shared our gifts of fab-ric, needles, thread, flour, cooking oil and children’s coloring and story books. We carried home some fruit and the assurance the family would take our two empty fuel cans with them on their fuel run to Tucupito in the morning.
The family consisted of four adults and eight children. Their home was a typical
stilt structure but with the addition of walls of clapboard. It also had beds. This was quite different from the homes of their neighbours, who lived in open frame build-ings and slept in hammocks.
Nearby was another open rectangular building that turned out to be a Christian church. They had been holding services for the past seven years. We later attended one of their Sunday services and were quite impressed that they could conduct it in three languages — English, Warao and Spanish — benefiting the small but mixed congregation.
Our short visit at the Boca de Tigre Lodge showed it to be an immaculately main-tained wilderness lodge, ready for customers, although we heard of only one being present at the time. The buildings consisted of single-storey structures, divided into private cubicles each with a double bed, table, toilet and wash sink. The grounds were groomed with the construction blending into the surrounding forest.
—Continued on next page
Most families along the river live in open buildings and sleep in hammocks
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— Continued from previous page Making our way back to our boat, we discovered it had been completely surround-
ed by flotillas of rich, emerald-green water hyacinth. It gave the appearance that the boat was settled in the center of a large green garden. We had heard that large float-ing masses of water hyacinth could actually cause a boat to drag its anchor. We pushed our way through and up to our boat, where we could start pulling the hya-cinth away. As we pulled and separated the clumps of hyacinth, the current would carry them away and allow us to go after the next piece. It took about 15 minutes to free the boat.
We were invited aboard Sea Gypsy that evening where Ben treated us to delicious barbe-cued, fresh-caught fish and entertained us with a fascinating, hour-long slide show of Sea Gypsy’s adventures as Ben nears the conclusion of a circumnavigation.
Earlier in the day Alouette reported they had traveled by dinghy to Isla De Mono, about 30 minutes from the lodge, and had seen a troop of monkeys on the island, so we made plans to go early the next morning. Apparently we hadn’t gone quite far enough up the caño.
Our next stop was the Orinoco Delta Lodge. This lodge is a large complex consist-ing of individual cabins, rather than rooms, with a central hall with dining room and lounge. It is quite modern in conveniences, including internet. The cabins are all interconnected to a main walkway. Everything is on stilts, including the raised walk-ways. There is a cage where a puma is housed. Along the walkway are blackened paint cans with wicks coming out of the lids; these burn used motor oil for night lanterns. We understand they help keep mosquitoes away.
A treat to the eye was the sight of a couple of guests sitting on the edge of the dock, dangling fishing lines into the water, hoping to catch a fish while the resident cats hung closely by waiting for a feast opportunity. It was like a scene from “Tom Sawyer”. One employee walked by with a colorful macaw on his shoulder. On the edge of a thatched roof was a tarantula seeking out insects hiding in the thatch.
We planned to treat ourselves this evening by having dinner at the lodge around six o’clock. The staff informed us dinner was normally served at 8:00PM and, as dark-ness closed in, we discovered why. The mosquitoes became thick and aggressive to the point we found it necessary to hurry back to our boats and seek cover. After dark the mosquitoes abated and we returned to the lodge where we enjoyed a most excel-lent meal of breaded pan-fried piranha, potato and vegetables. It was easily the best restaurant meal we’ve had in a long time, and cost about US$8 per plate.
Across the river from the lodge is a village; from these homes dugout canoes were paddled up to our boat. The women and children offered baskets and necklaces for trade. The dugout canoes were obviously hand-hewn from trees — quite rough and rustic in their construction. As the canoes dry out in the heat of the sun, cracks develop, causing them to leak. The holes are not filled but rather the water is con-tinuously bailed out. Nearly every canoe had one paddler with one or more bailers.
On one occasion we noticed a young girl, probably around ten years old, at the control of an outboard motor with seven or eight younger children along for the ride. In other instances young boys and girls of about four or five years of age paddled to our boat. In each case there was no doubt the boat was completely under control, except in one instance where we gave the young paddler a ball to play with and in his excitement, he almost upset his canoe.
Melinda from Sea Schell had traded nail polish and shampoo. The women immedi-ately began washing their hair in the river. Other young female traders approached their boat later, pointing to their fingernails hoping to receive the new glamour product.
We learned that the Warao girls, when reaching puberty, cut their hair short to sig-nify that they are available for marriage. In many cases this is at the age of 12 or 13 years, and by 16 years some of the girls are reported to have three or four children.
As days on the river closed, many groups of parrots, mostly in pairs, flew over us with their familiar cry, as well as flocks of scarlet ibis. With the exception of the drone of the odd outboard engine on the main river channel, the evenings were silent. However, just as light started to fade the mosquito onslaught arrived, making it necessary to retreat inside the boat for about two hours.
We had discussed going further upriver toward Tucupito but found that due to trans-mission lines across the river it wasn’t possible to go much farther. Consequently we started to head back downstream where we decided to seek out the Mis Palafito Lodge. We found it about four miles up a side caño where we anchored just short of the lodge. To our surprise the lodge, though hidden under the canopy of the forest and well cam-ouflaged, had brilliant white banners with red writing announcing “Toyota”. We were fascinated to find the dining room of this very large, remote resort property on the edge of the river completely set up for what appeared to be a convention.
The resort was larger than most of the villages we had seen. All interconnecting walkways and cabins were on stilts well above the forest floor. On the entry dock, greeting guests, was a tame toucan. As we entered the lodge there were two colourful macaws and two Capuchin monkeys.
The dining room was elegantly set up for dinner, with large bowls of fruit on each table. We were invited to the bar where we purchased a cold drink and relaxed to take in this elaborately set dining room, in stark contrast to its rustic building and the wild forest around it. A monkey’s head appeared, hanging upside-down from the roof, looking through the open doorway. It scanned the room and was suddenly joined by a second monkey. Seeing nobody in close proximity, they dropped to the floor, scurried up onto a table, grabbed some fruit and retreated immediately out-
side. It was quite a comical sight and we couldn’t help but marvel at the intelligence of these young monkeys.
Later that afternoon, four large speedboats came up the river at full throttle, past our boats. At the dock in front of the lodge, they unloaded about 20 people per boat — Toyota employees being pampered with an overnight stay in the rainforest.
As we travelled out, we explored more caños and were treated to more troops of monkeys. We found ourselves more confident in river travel, to the point we became a little cocky and decided to explore a secondary river channel with the yacht, rather than by dinghy. We had no reliable charts and were charting our own course, which we trusted would get us through to the main river. With Sea Schell leading, we did not ground at any time. However, at times the canopy over the river closed in, occasionally allowing branch tips to brush our mast. That was a little too close for comfort. This trip was particularly exciting and adventurous — and highly risky. This part we would not recommend to other boaters.
Our river trip back was uneventful, a clean close to one of the most spectacular adventures El Shaddai had been on to date. In contrast to typical anchorages, the Mánamo River was truly an exciting place to be.
The GPS coordinates of the Mánamo River anchorages and channels are found in the cruising package available in Chaguaramas, Trinidad, through Members Only Maxi Taxi Service.
Resident cats cozy up to fishing tourists at Orinoco Delta Lodge. Note the masses of water hyacinth in the river
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Visiting Yachts & Berth Rental: Email: [email protected] Tel: +1 473 435 7431 or +1 473 415 0820VHF channel 14 C&N Port Louis Marina
Phase one of Camper & Nicholsons Port Louis Marina is now open. Find us in the Lagoon, St. George’s, Grenada.
During the course of this year we will be adding nine superyacht berths and 200 berths from 10 to 40 metres. The Creole Village includes shops, a restaurant/bar, and the Capitainerie, which can provide full marine support services. Details of the entire Port Louis project are available at the Port Louis Sales Office, including information on property and long-term berth sales. Due to ongoing development, present berthing availability is limited so please contact us in advance of your business.
Grenada’s answer to St Barts, St Tropez, Costa Smeralda, Portofino...
Long Term Berth Sales: International Sales Manager Anna TaboneEmail: [email protected] Tel: +356 2248 0000
At 3:30 on a rainy morning in August 2007, my husband Nick and I joined ten other adventurous cruisers for a memorable trip to one of the world’s great wonders, Angel Falls in Venezuela.
The tallest waterfalls in the world are named for Jimmy Angel, a bush pilot from Missouri who searched for legendary gold in South America. Angel first saw the falls in 1933 when he flew over the flat-topped mountains, called tepuis (tey POO eez), in southeast-ern Venezuela. He returned in 1937 with his wife and two companions. Angel landed his monoplane in the marsh on top of Auyan tepui, where the plane was hopelessly stuck and remained for 33 years. Angel and his companions managed to descend the tepui and return to civilization after an 11-day trek through the jungle. The restored plane is now on display at the Cuidad Bolivar airport. After his death in 1956, Jimmy Angel’s ashes were cast upon the top of his beloved Auyan tepui. Salto Angel, as the falls are called in Spanish, has a total descent of 3,212 feet. The longest drop is 2,648 feet, 15 times taller than Niagara Falls.
FridayOur predawn departure from the
Bahia Redonda Marina in Puerto La Cruz is timed to catch a 9:00AM flight departing Cuidad Bolivar for the camp at Canaima Falls. According to our itinerary, we’ll spend Friday at Canaima Falls, travel upriver on Saturday to Angel Falls, and return to Puerto La Cruz on Sunday. However, we soon dis-cover this schedule is just another “jello plan”.
—Continued on next page
ALL ASHORE…
Angel Falls Adventure
Discovering the Lost World of Venezuela’s Tepuis
by Deanna Chaney
Canaima Falls from the air. ‘Despite a sleeping captain and so-so weather, we land at the Canaima Falls camp without incident’
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— Continued from previous page After three hours of speeding down a rain-
soaked, pot-holed highway, we stop for pas-tries and hot cups of café marrón (strong coffee topped with steamed milk). By 8:30AM we’re crossing the famous Orinoco River and arrive at the Cuidad Bolivar airport in plenty of time to catch our flight. We’re greeted by Natasha, the local tour company representa-tive, who explains that rain has caused delays with the planes. And so we wait, and we wait, and we wait....
Just after noon we finally board the twin-engine plane that we thought had been reserved for our group. As it turns out, the plane serves passengers on a first-come, first-serve basis. Our captain enters the plane and gives us the safety speech: “Hello, I am your captain. The door you just came in is your emergency exit. This door at the front is my exit. So if there’s an emergency, you guys go out the other way. The weather today is, eh... so-so. The flight time is 45 minutes. I’m going to take a nap, so please try to be quiet.” This guy is obviously bucking for a job at Southwest Airlines.
Despite a sleeping captain and so-so weath-er, we land at the Canaima Falls camp with-out incident. We’re met at the small airfield by Carlos, an indigenous Pemon Indian, who will be our guide for the remainder of the trip. He advises us to apply sunscreen and bug spray, which seems overkill for a six-minute hike to the camp. The camp includes a posa-da with guest rooms and a restaurant. We file into the restaurant and plop down our bags. Another tour group is already seated at a long table awaiting their lunch. We’re all famished and exhausted. “What’s for lunch?” we wonder, and then the hammer falls.
“We’re going to Angel Falls today,” Carlos informs us. This will be a four- to five-hour trip by boat and it’s already after 1:00PM. The angry reply from the bedraggled gringos: “No way! That’s not what we were told. We’re starving and tired and we’re staying here!” Carlos patiently explains that the posada is full and we can arrive at Angel Falls before dark if we leave now. In the American tradi-tion, we demand to speak to his manager.
The manager arrives, but he doesn’t speak English. So Carlos tries again to convince us to go to Angel Falls today.
“What about lunch? We haven’t eaten since 6:00AM!” we demand. Carlos promises we’ll have a picnic on the boat approximate-ly two hours from now. About this time, waiters weave through our group, carrying aromatic plates of smothered steak and rice to the other tour group seated at the table. By now the hungry gringos in our group are ready to devour their tour guide. Ultimately, after all the fussing, we obediently pull on our rain gear and prepare for departure.
By now the rain has resumed, so a cov-ered mini-truck arrives to transport us to the riverfront where our canoe awaits. We pass around the lifejackets, only ten for the 12 of us. Our luggage is loaded in the back of the canoe and covered with a plastic tarp; the gringos sit two-by-two in the front of the boat. There is a pilot in the back to drive the boat, a bowman with an oar to watch for debris and steer the boat around rocks, and our guide, Carlos.
About 30 minutes into the trip, the canoe is landed and we all disembark for a 30-minute hike across the flat savannah. The rapids in this area are too dangerous, so we must walk around while our pilot takes the boat by water. Once back on board, our picnic lunch is distributed. Each lunch box contains two sandwiches con-sisting of a hot dog bun with a slice of ham and cheese, a small package of plain cook-ies, and a mint. Only ten boxes are passed out, so some folks have to share. Bottles of water are also provided. It’s obvious that there won’t be a potty stop during the four-and-a-half-hour trip, so I take just a few sips and try to visualize the desert.
Our journey continues into the heart of tepui country. These sandstone plateaus formed over the course of three billion years when the African and South American continents split apart and erosion created the river valleys. Stark and brown, the rocky tepuis rise vertically from densely forested hills. —Continued on next page
Pioneering pilot Jimmy Angel grounded his small plane atop Auyan tepui and had to hike back out
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— Continued from previous page Green fingers of vegetation seem to claw their way up
the sheer cliffs, falling short of the tepuis’ lofty sum-mits. Formidable and mysterious, these ancient pla-teaus inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic adven-ture The Lost World.
As we make our way upriver and deeper into the for-est, the 48-horsepower Yamaha outboard engine repeatedly chokes and sputters. At one point, the rear of the boat fills with water. We stop and the gringos use their Dixie cups to bail out the sinking canoe. As dusk approaches, it starts raining again and the wet gringos are now shivering. The river has narrowed and the rapids are rougher. Large boulders jut out of the water making the navigation more treacherous.
Around 5:00PM, Carlos says we’re getting close. A few minutes later, we round a bend and straight ahead is a magnificent sight to take your breath away. Angel Falls looms above us, torrents of water cascading from the flat mountaintop into a misty cloud. With rain pelt-
ing my face, I say a silent prayer of thanks for the opportunity to witness one of nature’s truly awe-inspiring wonders.
The last hour of the trip is the most difficult: cold, wet, and nerve-racking. As we buck our way against the rap-ids of the Churun River, the pilot revs up our gasping
engine while the bowman guides us within inches of large boulders. We all know that if the engine dies now, the gringos will be in the water, scattered, and carried rapidly downstream with night approaching. The Yamaha prevails though, and with the sun’s final glimmer lighting the way, the pilot beaches us on the rocky shore below our camp.
The camp is an open pavilion, a sandy floor beneath a tin roof, with colorful hammocks slung from the rafters. There are men’s and women’s bathrooms, each with two toilets, non-functioning show-ers, and a sink. A generator powers lightbulbs strung under the roof and supplies water pressure in the bath-rooms. Everyone changes into dry clothes and passes around the rum. Spirits are improving!
Our long-awaited dinner is served at 8:30PM and it’s delicious: chicken roasted over a barbecue pit, rice, and tomato/onion salad. With full bellies and the lights off, we all collapse into our hammocks. A gentle rain patters
on the tin roof, while the churning river provides a soothing lullaby. And then the snoring starts. Note to self: pack earplugs next time.
SaturdayI awaken cocooned in my hammock, snuggled in a
sheet against the morning chill. Spreading apart the sheet and mosquito net, I open my eyes to see Angel Falls playing peek-a-boo under the clouds. Everyone is moving at a slow pace, taking pictures, and enjoying the peacefulness of the morning. For some reason, the camp guides haven’t started the generator yet. This means no water pressure to flush the toilets. Need I say more?
Our guides serve us a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs, a slice of ham and cheese, arepas (heavy corn biscuits not easily digested), and coffee. Sufficiently fed, we load up in the canoe for a quick trip across the river. Then it’s an hour’s hike up a muddy and slippery
path through the jungle. We carefully pick our way over roots, mud puddles, and logs. Carlos leads the way, looking for snakes.
We ultimately reach Mirador Salto Angel, which pro-vides a view of Angel Falls near the bottom where it joins the river. There’s no viewing platform here, nor are there any guard rails. About 30 to 40 tourists compete for space on a rocky precipice over a sheer drop-off. Spray and wind from the falls make the area quite treacherous, an OSHA inspector’s nightmare. The view is spectacular though. Since it’s wet season, a roaring river bursts from crevices at the top of the tepui. The free-falling water explodes into a swirling mist before joining the river below. In calmer condi-tions, visitors are allowed to swim at the base of the falls, but not today.
Back at camp, lunch is spaghetti with a surprising fish/tomato sauce. By 2:00PM we’re in the canoe for the faster downstream trip to the Canaima camp. We’re expecting a drier trip, but quickly reach for our jackets as waves board the boat and soak the gringos once again.
When we arrive back at the river’s edge just above Canaima Falls, there’s no truck to transport us so we lug our gear about a mile down a muddy road to the posada. Once again Carlos tells us there’s no room for us here. Instead, we’ll be sent to a nearby posada. We’re feeling pretty special by now.
Upon arrival at Posada Kaikuse, the innkeepers inform us that there aren’t enough rooms for all of us, so two couples will have to share a room with four single beds. Ah, that special feeling keeps growing. Nick and I get a spartan room with three single beds next to the innkeeper’s quarters. Next door, a child is screaming when we enter our room and is still scream-ing when we leave for dinner. We do get much-needed showers, although there isn’t any hot water. Later our group is trucked back to the main posada for dinner: an eggplant and vegetable sauté, rice, and bread.
When we return to our room, we’re relieved that the child next door is silent. However, about the time we crawl into our separate beds, the wailing starts again. I guess we eventually tune it out and fall asleep. Our rest is short-lived though. We’re awakened in the wee hours by a rooster just outside our door who doesn’t seem to get the sunrise thing. Soon barking dogs join the crowing, a veritable symphony on our doorstep. Lying in bed wide awake, I berate myself. Why didn’t I pack those earplugs? —Continued on next page
‘I open my eyes to see Angel Falls playing peek-a-boo under the clouds’
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Full Service Marina Facility
VIRGIN GORDA YACHT HARBOUR
Our facility located in the heart of beautiful Virgin Gorda comprises a 111-slip marina and a boatyard with 12 acres of dry storage space
offering insurance approved hurricane pits to secure your vessel during hurricane season.
Onsite amenities and services include a bank/ATM, a supermarket, chandlery, restaurant, bakery, clothing store, dive shop, phone and
fax facilities, free wireless internet access, fuel, water and ice, laundry facilities, and an office of the BVI Tourist Board all in
a pristine and relaxing environment. BVI Customs and immigration located within convenient walking distance.
Tel: 284 495-5500 284 495-5318
Fax: 284 495-5706 284 495-5685
Web: www.vgmarina.bizVHF Ch: 16
LEAVE YOUR BOAT IN OUR CARE THIS SUMMER
— Continued from previous page SundayBreakfast is served at 8:00AM: a fried egg, pancake with jelly, and the usual slices
of ham and cheese. Afterwards, eight of our group join Carlos for the Sapo Falls tour. We gingerly pick our way down a narrow path between the rock wall and a torrential cascade of water thundering over the falls. A single rope guardrail is all that stands between us and the slippery edge. A misstep could mean disaster. The waterfall is so powerful it would easily crush anyone who fell onto the rocks below. In some places, the water curves back across our path making it nearly impossible to see. If you can imagine standing in front of a fire hose, you’ll have the general idea. The gringos are once again cold and wet and awestruck.
For the trip back to Cuidad Bolivar, Nick and I end up on two different single-engine, five-passenger planes. Once on course, the pilot on Nick’s plane pulls out a newspaper and reads an article about Lady Diana. When another plane appears just a few hundred feet off the port wing, the pilot pulls out his cell phone and takes a picture of it.
Natasha greets us at the airport and apologizes for our problems. She arranges for several taxis to take us to a market area on the Orinoco River. We have a delicious lunch with a fabulous view, followed by a quick stop at the shoreside festivities of the malecón. Okay, we are feeling special now. Then it’s back in the van for the bone-jarring ride home, arriving at the marina just after dark.
The Angel and Canaima waterfalls are spectacular, and this trip will certainly be one of the most treasured memories of our cruise. Although the logistics didn’t go quite as expected, we learned to be flexible when traveling in remote areas. Venezuela is a country of unsurpassed natural beauty. It offers islands with powdery white beaches and pristine water, lush jungles, majestic mountains, and fertile plains. We hope to see more of this incredible country before we leave.
Angel Falls Tips• Undertake a trip to Angel Falls with a sense of adventure. It’s more like camping
than five-star travel, and you should expect the unexpected and be flexible. A little discomfort is a small admission price to experience firsthand Mother Nature’s power and beauty.
• Pack lightly but be sure to take extra changes of dry clothes. • The falls are most spectacular during rainy season (June to December), so bring
rain gear and some warm clothing. However, crowds are usually smaller during dry season.
• Bring waterproof footwear that has good tread. Sandals and Crocs are too slip-pery. Keens are a good choice.
• Verify vaccination requirements for entering Cuidad Bolivar. Our group got yel-low fever shots.
• Bring a seat cushion for the long canoe trip. • Pack some snacks and water. If you want an alcoholic beverage at the falls, bring
your own.• For more background and breathtaking video of the tepuis, watch the PBS docu-
mentary “The Lost World: Venezuela’s Ancient Tepuis.”• Don’t forget the EARPLUGS!
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WHILE St. Croix’s south shore is still unknown to most
sailors, her north shore also has many sites that even regular visitors don’t know about. Last October, the US Virgin Islands government approved rules for the St. Croix East End Marine Park, which includes the waters and shoreline from Green Cay around Point Udall to Great Pond, out to the three-mile limit, excluding Buck
Island Reef National Monument. As part of educating the public regarding the wonders to be found — and preserved — the Park has offered Wednesday morning tours of the bays within its boundaries.
Those who read only the popular cruising guides will be quite surprised to find several lovely spots a yacht and her crew can enjoy that are ignored by most. That spells “special” in many a cruiser’s logbook, and the Marine Park has made some of these spots a little
more convenient than they were before.From Chenay Bay to Cotton Garden Bay, day moor-
ings (currently free of charge) have been installed to accommodate shallow-draft boats. From a yacht anchored in deeper water, it’s a short dinghy or kayak ride to either mooring or shore for secluded beaches, lively reefs and short trails to serene salt ponds.
Chenay BayEast of Green Cay lies peaceful Chenay Bay, where
the water is deep enough for most yachts to anchor in sand. Yachts may also anchor in the lee of Green Cay or may take a slip in Green Cay Marina, which offers showers, fuel, and fine dining. The Park’s day moorings are available in as much as six feet of water, toward the western part of the bay. The Chenay Bay Beach Resort has a dock in shallow water, a restaurant and water sports at the far eastern end of the bay.
Green Cay is a national wildlife refuge with a brown pelican rookery and the last place the St. Croix ground lizard can be found. Conch, lobster, snapper, stingray, manta ray and barracuda inhabit Chenay Bay, while osprey, frigate birds, white terns and brown pelicans fly above. Endangered hawksbill, green and leather-back sea turtles nest on the beach, which hikers should avoid disturbing. There is plenty of room under the seagrape and mahoe trees (but steer clear of the manchineel) for camping, though fires and vehicles are prohibited. Lucky campers may witness turtles mat-ing, nesting or hatching in the light of the moon.
The sandstone ledges found in the bay look as though they are man-made, but are actually geological structures formed when the water in a landlocked pond creates hydraulic pressure and pushes pond sediment and minerals under the beach and into the sea. The shiny black rock veins that occasionally inter-rupt the sandy shores are basalt, unusual on this non-volcanic island.
The beach lies adjacent to the Southgate Coastal Reserve, owned by the St. Croix Environmental Association (www.stxenvironmental.org). A short hike on an easy trail leads to a large salt pond and wetlands area, an important refuge and breeding site for resi-dent and migratory birds, including four territorially endangered species: white-cheeked pintail, ruddy duck, Caribbean coot and least tern. The reserve also includes mangrove forests and grasslands, which SEA uses for education and research. SEA is in the process of designing an environmentally sensitive and sustain-able Reserve Center, bird blinds, walking trails and other infrastructure improvements. —Continued on next page
The beach at the friendly St. Croix Yacht Club on Teague Bay
g (accommodaanchored inride to eithelively reefs a
Chenay BEast of Gr
the water is sand. Yachtor may takeshowers, fueare availablewestern parthas a dock sports at the
Green Caypelican rooklizard can bemanta ray aosprey, frigafly above. Eback sea tu
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— Continued from previous page
Early mornings are best for sighting teals, pintails, ducks, herons, moorhens, warblers, stilts and other wetland species. Tiny fiddler and large land crabs share the pond with birds, mongoose, iguana and deer, whose footprints can be seen in soft mud around
the still, brackish water. Coakley Bay and Prune BayCoakley Bay and Prune Bay lie west of the “G1” bea-
con (approximately 17˚45’59”N, 064˚38’11”W) and offer pleasant day anchorages in nine to 13 feet of water within a short distance of the beach. Watch for
isolated coral heads and the patch reef between the two bays, and anchor in sand to avoid disturbing the sea grass. At the west end of Prune Bay is Pull Point, featuring a prominent house with a green roof, once the home of Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb. No worries about radiation, but the swift cur-rent and rocky shoreline will send the prudent mariner
further east to anchor. Park moorings are for tenders and small craft, while snorkelers and swimmers enjoy the pris-tine reefs and rocks. The beach is usually deserted except on weekends. In the words of Marine Park Ranger John Farchette III, “When you’re on the beach, look out to sea: you’re all alone — unless somebody says some-thing.”
Trails lead through shore vegetation to salt ponds, where deer and big blue land crabs share the peaceful brackish water with birds, mongoose and other island critters. Chenay, Coakley and Prune Bays have been designated “No Take Areas,” where com-mercial and recreational fish-ing are prohibited. No official word on kite boarding, but it looks good here and elsewhere on the north shore, especially during the Christmas winds.
Teague BayTague, or Teague Bay is
well-known for its friendly St. Croix Yacht Club, which welcomes cruisers with warm Crucian hospitality, a dinghy dock, showers and clubhouse. The barrier reef protects the bay from the roughest seas and offers div-ers and snorkelers hours of fun. Yachts may enter the reef at Coakley Bay, leaving the “G1” beacon to port: proceed east about 1.7nm, keeping to the middle of the channel, watch for and avoid the easy-to-see patch reefs on either side.
In the southwestern corner of Teague Bay, moorings in front of Duggan’s Reef Restaurant are in shallow water and offer a spot to tie the tender while snorkelingor swimming.
Cotton Garden BayEast of Teague Bay, Park moorings at Cotton Garden
Bay are in front of Cramer’s Park, a large sandy public beach with some facilities. These bays are designated “Recreational Areas:” swimming, snorkeling, diving, boating and recreational line fishing within 100 feet of shore are permitted.
Visiting cruisers are invited to swim, dive and snor-kel in the park waters and to enjoy the beaches. To get even more out of the Marine Park, take a free interpre-tive tour with Ranger John Farchette III. He is a walk-ing, talking encyclopedia of St. Croix flora, fauna,
history, anthropology, geology and culture. Check the East End Marine Park calendar at www.stxeastend-marinepark.org, or call (340) 773-3367, for Wednesday morning walking tours of the Park’s bays and adjacent salt ponds, and for Saturday snorkel clinics, too.
The St. Croix East End Marine Park is part of the US Virgin Islands Department of Planning and Natural Resources, Coastal Zone Management Division. Headquarters are located at the Great Pond Estate on St. Croix’s south shore.
A barrier reef protects Teague Bay from the roughest seas and offers divers and snorkelers hours of fun
Carol Kramer-Burke, SEA program director, with empty turtle shells from a nest at Chenay Bay
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I stood waist deep in the ocean off a beach near Deshaies, Guadeloupe. The water was still warm in October from the hot Caribbean summer. My 14-foot-long, white fiberglass paddleboard bobbed and chuckled beside me in the wind-
rippled, moonlit water; it was two-thirty in the morning. I hoped to be the first person ever to cross the 30-mile channel between Montserrat and Guadeloupe on a paddleboard. By the light of a very bright full moon, I clearly saw the tall island of Montserrat and its active volcano that were 30 miles to my northwest. Soufrière Hills volcano lay heaped on the flat horizon and breathed out a white tusk of steam. It reminded me of a fallen mammoth. But this historic creature was alive. I was glad to see that, though besieged by technology and pollution, our planet was still capa-ble of a magnificent primeval display.
Hot in the long–sleeved red surfing jersey and purple tights that I wore for sun protection, then chilled by the cool northeast breeze, I sweated and shivered. I smelled the briny, pungent ocean through the sweet-smelling zinc oxide on my nose. I checked to see that my sports bars, water and sunscreen were secure in the mesh carryall attached to the bow of my board. I cracked the chemical light sticks — green for my bow, red for the stern — and then activated the two white light sticks that I’d sewn onto my visor. The lights would help my escort vessel to see me in the dark. It was my eighth Caribbean paddling trip. I’d paddled mostly without escort in my home waters of the Virgin Islands, in the Bahamas and in the Turks and Caicos. I’d paddled from St. Vincent to Grenada, crossed the channels between St. Lucia and Guadeloupe, and between St. Lucia and St. Vincent. As far as I knew, none of this had been done before on a paddleboard. Now, I worked to connect the Leeward Islands.
I had trained hard and I felt ready to paddle the Guadeloupe Channel. I was ner-vous. I took a last look at the shore and saw two lovers dally on the pale sand in the
intense moonlight. Their dark hands darted over each other’s bodies. The white-toothed, slim boy wore a red Speedo brief; the smiling, plump, longhaired girl danced in a black thong bikini. They stared into each other’s eyes. Between the crashes of surf, I heard them whisper to each other in French. They reminded me of the New York twin towers: innocent, about to be bowled over by a lethal flying object — in this case, love. They sank slowly down together on a yellow beach towel spread behind them on the sand.
Oh well, I thought, I would make love to the sea. A paddleboarder caresses the ocean many times in a lifetime, and vice versa. Paddleboarding is primitive, like lovemaking, or like a volcano. A paddleboarder uses no motor, paddle or sail, just the bare hands and arms. Lovers either consummate their love, or not. Volcanoes either erupt or they don’t. A paddleboarder either makes it across a 30-mile channel. Or she doesn’t. —Continued on next page
Paddleboarding to Montserrat
by Susan Chaplin
Taking a break, with Montserrat and its sinister-looking volcanic plume in the distance
With my support team. Left to right front row: Ted Bull, Teresa, me, Danielle De Rouck. Back row: Ulrich Meixner, Peter De Rouck
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— Continued from previous page The wind was only five knots, but northeast and a headwind. Paddling out from
the lee of the beach, I was lifted on large swells generated by a distant storm. I settled in to my paddling — a hundred strokes while lying prone, a hundred on my knees — and enjoyed the rhythm as my hands and arms felt the water.
I did not want to breathe diesel fumes, so I had asked my chase boat, a sturdy catamaran, to stay 400 yards ahead of me. Aboard my escort vessel were two friends who had watched me cross the 22-mile St. Lucia Channel in 2003, and the 26-mile St. Vincent Channel in 2004. Ulrich Meixner of DSL Yachting in St. Lucia was again my sponsor and captain, and Ted Bull, a nautical Englishman living in St. Lucia, was there to offer his soft-spoken encouragement. New faces were Belgian: Danielle and Peter De Rouck. Our tribute to youth and beauty was crew-member Teresa, a young English sailing instructor new to St. Lucia. It was a good team. I hoped to do them proud by crossing the Guadeloupe Channel and tagging land on Montserrat.
The moon and stars vanished under dark clouds. In total darkness, I felt disori-ented and nauseated. Lit by the glow of my light sticks, my face, reflected on my wet board, said, “Sixty-two.” My chase boat allowed me to almost catch up and then
motored quickly into the distance. Windblown waves broke over me. I often fell off my board, was rolled underwater, and had to climb back on. A fish jumped and col-lided with my left ear. Though I didn’t use them for paddling, my calves cramped into cannonballs.
Daybreak showed me that I was closer to Montserrat than I thought. Uli and Teresa buzzed me in the dinghy to offer food and water at the end of a boat hook — a sanc-tioned method of nourishing long-distance swimmers and paddlers. My leg cramps eased. I was riding a northwest current and paddled at between three and four knots, faster than usual. A forecast weather window had arrived to bring me ideal paddling conditions. The wind dropped completely. My board slipped through the smooth water. The rising sun painted the eruptive column above Montserrat and a nearby cumulus cloud brilliant pink. I was more than halfway to Montserrat, and still no wind. My crew enjoyed themselves. Captain Uli stopped the boat to let people dive from the stern. Uli and Teresa surfed the swell in the dinghy. The big smooth waves made paddling exciting. I clawed my way up blue hills of water to look down on the mast of my boat. Then I glided into wave troughs like a surfer while my boat hung up above me on a wave top. My paddling trip became an amusement park, complete with childish shouts, “Wheeee!”
Six miles from the south tip of Montserrat, I turned into a seriously tired old lady. Ironed smooth under the scorching sun, the sea began to look cold and lumpy. After paddling for 24 calm miles, I was suddenly forced to sprint in a 12-knot northwest headwind (an unusual wind for the Caribbean) and to fight three to four-foot wind chop. Water sluiced over my head. A fast-moving eastbound current seized me like a game fish taking bait. I was pulled east into the Atlantic Ocean. Montserrat had been so close that I could smell volcanic sulfur and see stones in the cliffs; now the island began to slip away westward. I couldn’t believe that I might not get there. Like any competitor who doesn’t want to be beaten, I dug deep.
Everything that I wanted was on Montserrat. I pushed myself to the point of col-lapse. What was it that I wanted so much to permit myself such agony?
Going in to touch Montserrat would be the hardest part of my challenge. To make a “legal” point-to-point channel crossing, I’d have to tag the land on both ends of my crossing. Much of the southeast and southwest coast of Montserrat, up to two miles offshore, is in the Exclusion Zone (due to volcanic danger) and thus off limits to mariners. But Shoe Rock where I planned to land is protected from dangerous ash flow by the South Soufrière Hills. It would be hard to get in there. Two-meter waves crashed against the steep rocks and tossed salt spray high in the air.
Uli and Teresa monitored me from the dinghy. When they saw a hiatus in the surf they shouted, “Go!” I made it in to an eddy behind a boulder that was part of the shore. When I heard the sharp crack of my board hitting solid stone on Montserrat (it was 2:30PM; I’d been at sea for 12 hours), I knew what I was after. Not just a moment of glory. I recalled the lessons of the day: Montserrat had reminded me of what a privilege it is to glide through the ocean pulled by the broad blue spinnaker of the sky.
I was reminded that in accomplishing something big, hope and despair go hand-in-hand. The lovers on the beach in Deshaies told me that love is absolute power; the people who think that absolute power corrupts are absolutely wrong. The fish that hit me in the ear whispered, “You spend a lot of time with fishes. But don’t think you’re one of us.” The dawn said that a pretty daybreak could start a peaceful day. Or, as when Mt. Pelée in 1902 killed 30,000 people on Martinique, it can herald a lethal eruption. For me, the rosy dawn brought the chance to be first to cross the 30-mile Guadeloupe Channel on a paddleboard. Success was sweet, but I realized that at any time my luck could have turned sour.
My strong support team was responsible for my good luck.
Left, right, left, right.… Paddling to Puerto Rico in 2006, this shot shows Susan’s set-up
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WE untied from the buoys and gently slid away from the lights of Kralendijk, Bonaire, under a waxing moon. A month in one place in the cruising game has plusses and minuses: we had had a day of good-byes to good friends and were eager to get
going but some part of us wanted to remain put. That gentle swinging on a buoy in Bonaire is seductive.
We had waited many weeks for a weather window for our passage north. The winds had been generally too high from mid-January to February but the day came when most of the forecasting seemed to be in our favour. It was midnight as we departed; we were hoping to take advantage of flatter seas at night. We had decided to head to Islas de las Aves to get some easting under our belt; that also gave us the chance to pause in the Aves should we choose, and even carry on east to the Roques before turning northeast.
The south end of Bonaire gave us a real thrashing but we were prepared as most headlands have this habit. Within an hour or so my husband and I were both well settled into our first night and into our three hours on, three hours off routine.
Daylight came and the Aves were in sight. Would we stop and rest in that beautiful cluster of wind-swept and remote islands, would we carry on east, or would we head north? The day was full of anticipatory excitement. —Continued on next page
Bonaire to St. Croix
by Tricia Chapman
Our Malo 43, Skysong, is a wonderful friend in a heavy sea
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— Continued from previous page We decided to turn north between Aves Sotovento and Aves Barlovento and once
away from any inter-island chop reckoned on being able to judge the better sea state — east or north? North we chose and all seemed nicely comfortable.
We had many reasons for making a passage back to the Lesser Antilles island chain. We had been over in the Southern Caribbean for nearly three years, we han-kered after re-visiting favourite haunts, and we had special friends waiting to meet us in Antigua. We laughed when we realised that at one point we could make Barbuda on this tack, as it had been our favourite spot. To return would be perfection....
However the wind didn’t allow this course for long and a St. Maarten landfall became more of a possibility. But there was a long way to go at this stage and we were just amusing ourselves by dreaming of where we would end up. As long as our course was east and not west we would be happy — or so we thought.
The wind picked up, and the seas became lumpy and uncomfortable as sunset approached on our second night and reefing the sails was necessary. Our boat is a Swedish-built Malo 43, Skysong. She’s a real beauty and a wonderful friend in a heavy sea. She did us proud on the Atlantic in 2002; why should she not do us proud again? So, with a one-third furled genoa and reefed main, we were content with the way Skysong was coping with this confused and messy sea. Ugly mountains of thrashing, foamy waves encircled us.
A sharp, loud crack and a flapping sail indicated the furling line to the genoa had snapped. It was dark and we were not going to achieve much by going up to the bow to sort things.
All enjoyment of the passage disappeared rapidly for me, but Peter, my husband of 42 years and Caribbean cruising chum for six, saw this immediately as the challenge he had been missing while relaxing on the buoys in Bonaire! I have a super-tolerant husband but when I got over-excited about the condition we found ourselves in, it didn’t take him long to tell me to go below. Always calm in an emergency, and his crew being the opposite, we had a lot of moods and emotions to cope with on this occasion. Needless to say I went below. There’s always only one skipper and I’m happy to bow to his superior skills (when it involves sailing!). I just lay in the aft cabin praying for safety that night and for the wise decisions of my husband. Sleep was not readily available. The bow was slamming into the waves, and the boat was sounding so unhappy with all her creaks and groans as she raced on, seemingly out of control.
We bore away, things did become easier, and so my watch approached. Unrested and unwilling, I went on deck with a hot cup of tea for Peter and with a little coaxing I took my watch.
There is something magical about being alone out on the ocean with a silvery, wax-ing moon, a plethora of stars and only yourselves and your boat transporting you through the universe. However, the magic does fade rapidly when you are being buf-feted from one side of the cockpit to the other and the spray is soaking your cosy sitting areas.
The wind reached 30 to 35 knots during the squalls, with seemingly mountainous seas of 12 to 13 feet. Crouching as close to the companionway as I could, suddenly my eye was drawn to our liferaft; there was movement on it! I saw a booby bird wres-tling with our ensign, getting wrapped up in the flapping flag but persistently attempting to land on the liferaft.
A full five minutes later a landing was negotiated for the first time. The arrival of this bird on Skysong was a real turn-around for me. It instantly took my mind off myself, my worries and my fears. I had something to centre my mind on. I was so grateful for it as I was feeling pretty scared as we roared through the night with this fully flown genoa and heaving, undulating waves all around us.
The tenacity of this bird was enormous. Such an ability to withstand winds such as these, using its wingspan to hold a rough position with Skysong ricochetting across the waves, buffetting up and down. But still she was trying to establish a proper footing.
Another landing was achieved and preening was the first priority. For two hours or more I watched as she groomed herself. A mate arrived; I heard the twittering of friends greeting one another as her mate landed on the Jon-buoy. I was amazed and so happy to have their company.
They remained with us for nine hours. Peter was happily snoring down below. To have company on a night such as this seemed a rare treat. My mind had been taken away from the CMG and the SOG, from whether we were going to make landfall in Puerto Rico, Haiti, St. Croix, St. Maarten or the Dominican Republic, which we’d been steering toward during the day.
When the going got rough both birds fled but they returned shortly and re-negoti-ated their sitting areas. One perched above me on the bimini cover, but not for long; they were soon back to the liferaft and the Jon-buoy. More preening, more twittering. They were happy even if I wasn’t.
Morning light brought our daily SSB connection with our dear friends Sue and Peter on Odyssey, situated in Antigua and awaiting our arrival. Hearing Sue’s golden voice restored normality for me. She and Peter discussed our possible desti-nations, the latest weather forecast and methods for retrieving our unfurled genoa. For a while I was transported to our reunion in Barbuda, and a belated celebration of Sue’s 50th birthday, which we had missed due to weather. Again I was moder-ately cheered, despite the continually heavy seas and what had become known as the “great, white, flapping monster” (the genoa) taking over our lives.
Although no squalls had been forecast, in no time at all they became a serious feature. The ominous clouds held quantities of rain and built from a small cell to large in a very short time, releasing their power on us with venom, it seemed. Our minds were taken back to our Atlantic crossing when at 7 o’clock each evening — the start of my watch, of course — line squalls arrived. We have radar on Skysong and I became adept at reading these beastly grey clouds that produced so much distur-bance and threat.
Braced in advance, sitting in the companionway, my thoughts were everywhere. What was I doing? Had I really just said fond good-byes to all my newly made friends? Was I going to see them again? Where was our landfall going to be? Were we going to be safe? Was something else going to go wrong?
Morning light again brought a sense of relief, of joy in seeing the sunrise in spite of loathing the movement the waves were creating under us. Sleep was becoming a rare commodity as Skysong was quivering and bucking at the same time, as she raced along. I am so lucky being married to an ex-airline pilot. They are a breed which can survive with a cat-nap style of sleep. Me, I need a solid eight or nine hours to function correctly. I was really suffering here. However, after all these years together we are good at compromising, and many a watch I was generously donated the odd hour here and there.
Cooking meals down below isn’t a problem for me in a heavy sea so we ate well with the normal favourites of chili con carne, spaghetti bolognese, omelets, ham sand-wiches and “cuppa soups” coming up through the hatch with regularity — always well received and appreciated.
As time passed it became obvious to us that, despite our situation and increasing winds and seas, a St. Croix landfall was going to be a possibility. This cheered us immensely. We had sailed from Bonaire to St. Croix the previous year and thor-oughly enjoyed all St. Croix had to offer. —Continued on next page
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— Continued from previous page Another visit would be welcome, so our time was taken up with dreaming of land-
fall in St. Croix and all we would experience there. But as time progressed, we obviously had to address the problem of bringing down
the “big white flapping monster” safely. Much time was spent over cups of tea dis-cussing how we would do this. We settled happily with the idea of attaching another line to the broken end of the furling line and leading it straight back into the cockpit and onto a winch. There was a lot of canvas to get furled.
But above all what we needed was good shelter. One of our worries was that if we couldn’t keep up the course for St. Croix, we would be headed for somewhere unfa-miliar and therefore would not know of the shelter available.
Every time a squall hit us, it knocked us off our favoured course. We were pinching as high as we could; Skysong was coping beautifully, but we were tired and weary in every limb. Again, the reliance and trust I had in Peter kept me going. His navigating skills came to the fore and with daybreak on the fourth morning, and hoping against hope that this would be our last morning on passage, we had a sense of landfall being within sight. Our SSB connection was made and, with Sue and Peter on Odyssey willing us on, spirits were lifted. Within a few hours we had St. Croix in sight, even though a few tacks were necessary to achieve the shelter we needed to bring down the genoa.
A glorious sight is land. My whole demeanour changed; even the tiredness became manageable after a good breakfast for us both. The winds still had much energy to give us and we had to battle for the last six hours to get up the southwest coast of St. Croix. The engine aided our last hour’s approach in 28 knots of wind, digging deep for the energy required to motorsail with a fully flown genoa. Finally, the genoa was furled successfully with sighs of relief and our anchorage was in sight.
Don’t you just love it when you can see your anchor dropping onto a sand bottom in a sparkling sea, aqua water all around you and the chain snaking gently away beneath you? We relaxed in the cockpit with the pristine sea lapping around us, reflecting on the passage, appreciative of the well-built hull providing us with our home. A restful night was in sight and the sleep was going to be glorious, as was the sense of achievement that enveloped us both.
Tricia and Peter Chapman have been cruising the Caribbean aboard Skysong for the last six years.
‘The tenacity of this bird was enormous… it instantly took my mind off myself as we roared through the night’
— Continued from page 12 Bequia Easter Regatta 2008
Yacht Division WinnersRacing Class
Category 51) , Hobie 33, Richard Szyjan, GrenadaClippers Ship2) , Surprise, Nicolas Gillet, France (Martinique)Padig3) , Surprise, Vianney Saintenoy, France (Martinique)
Cruising Class IPetit Careme1) , Beneteau 38, Rawle Barrow, Trinidad & Tobago Bloody Mary2) , Hughes 38, Jerry Stewart, Grenada (Carriacou)Jaystar3) , J/30, Ron Hunt, Barbados
Cruising Class IIHot Chocolate1) , C&C 38, Rich Washington, USAAppleseeds2) , Sun Odessey 40, Peter Asseltine, CanadaKula3) , Tartan 41, Mark MacNeill, Canada
J/24 ClassAttitude1) , Benjamin Todd, St. LuciaUnbridled2) , Mike Green, St. LuciaJabal3) , Nick Forsberg, St. Lucia
Single-Handed RaceCSA RATEDHallucine1) , Open 40, Nicolas Gillet, France (Martinique)Sonadio 31) , A40, Yann Lecam, France (Martinique)Clippers Ship2) , Surprise, Nicolas Gillet, France (Martinique)NON-CSA RATEDKlondike1) , Beneteau 456, Donald Radcliffe, USAObock2) , Fandango 32, Gildas Courrier, France (Martinique)Kula3) , Tartan 41, Mark MacNeill, Canada
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BAREBOAT CHARTERS - FULLY CREWED CHARTERS - ASA SAILING SCHOOL
PO Box 39, Blue Lagoon, St Vincent, West Indies Tel. 1-784-456-9526 / 9334 / 9144 Fax. 1-784-456-9238
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ONE would think that after a yacht has sailed to the Caribbean from North America or Europe, and
has spent at least one winter cruising up and down the islands, insurance underwriters would see little risk of having to pay any claims for such a well-tried vessel’s subsequent trip back to the States or Europe, or onward to Panama.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Boats leav-ing the Caribbean for Panama, North America and Europe cost underwriters large sums each year, in heavy-weather damage claims, groundings and aban-donment/total losses. Almost invariably these losses are due to leaving the Caribbean at the wrong time of year.
Timing is ImportantSkippers heading westward to Panama are often
over-confident. They think this passage will be a nice, easy 900-mile downhill slide. But if they look at the US weather charts, they will note that for the period from December to the end of March, and for another period in July, there is a big red circle east of Panama denot-ing expected wave heights of 12 feet or more. During the rest of the year, although the waves may not be expected to reach these heights, you’re still likely to encounter rough conditions near the end of the trip where there is a counter-current of up to one knot running against 15 to 25-knot tradewinds.
Boats leaving the Caribbean for Florida often find themselves in trouble if they leave before mid-April. They run into a “norther” — a northwest wind, dead on the nose. This wind then clocks to the north and then northeast, making the Silver Bank and the Bahamas a dead lee (deadly) shore! Boats heading farther north up the US East Coast also frequently run into trouble with a late-season northwesterly, blasting them with high winds and a severe temperature drop. But by late April, the northers that force their way down to Florida are not too strong.
Boats heading northwest to Charleston, Morehead/Beaufort, or the Chesapeake should wait till mid- or late May, as they are traversing an area where sub-tropical hurricanes can crop up through April and possibly later. These small, intense subtropical hurri-canes were only spotted in recent years when weather information was gathered from satellites. Prior to this, since they were small and in an area where big ships seldom go, there were not enough reports of these storms to show up on the weather charts.
Heading to PanamaHeading west to Panama, you can island-hop or
cruise coastally (check www.safetyandsecuritynet.com for any current crime hotspots) or stay offshore.
If heading to Panama direct, rig for down wind. Hoist two headsails on the roller-furling headstay. If the luff lengths are not the same, add a pennant to the shorter headsail. The windward headsail’s sheet goes through the end of the spinnaker pole. The leeward headsail is trimmed through a block on the end of the main boom, forward to another block, thence back to a winch.
If the wind is on the quarter, the main can be left up, vanged down hard and held forward by a foreguy (pre-venter) led from the end of the boom to the stemhead. If the main is blanketing the lee headsail, douse the main but leave the boom out to act as an outrigger to correctly trim the lee headsail.
As you progress westward, the wind and sea will both increase. Keep your boat speed down to l.2 or l.3 times the square root of the waterline length. If speed gets above this, slow down by starting to roll up the headsails one on top of the other.
The seas around Cabo de Vela are always rough;
stay well offshore when passing it. Also, the outflow at the mouth of the Rio Magdalena creates a really bad sea and, at certain times of the year, a tremendous amount of logs, trees and other flotsam comes pouring out of the river.
Approaching PanamaApproaching Panama for the last 200 or 300 miles,
you can expect to meet a counter-current and a hard blow. The increasing wind velocity combined with the bad sea conditions mean that the autopilot or wind-vane should be disconnected and you should hand steer. The electronic autopilot will only steer according to the compass; it will not take into account the wind and sea conditions. A windvane will only help steer in relation to the wind, so when you surf down a wave and the apparent wind goes forward, the windvane will cause the boat to bear off and possibly broach.
Moreover, a modern light-displacement yacht with a
fin keel really will get up and surf. Surfing down the face of a wave at 12 or 13 knots in a 45-foot boat is thrilling but dangerous, as you are traveling at almost the same speed as the wave. Because there is little or no water flowing over the rudder, you have no steerage and are therefore on the edge of disaster. A broach in these conditions is all too possible.
For passages such as this, where you may have heavy weather while running dead down wind, I feel that a worthwhile investment is a drogue. This, once streamed, will tend to keep the stern square to the waves and thus minimize or eliminate the chances of broaching.
Whenever running down wind, rig an anti-gybe pre-venter on the main boom.
Finally, make sure of a daylight arrival! If necessary, slow down and wait for sunrise. The San Blas Islands are low-lying and surrounded by reefs, and you’ll want good light for eyeball navigation if you make landfall there. The Panama Canal’s entrance is well buoyed and well lit, but the many lights ashore can be very confusing. More than one boat has missed the channel at night and ended up high and dry on the beach, or worse yet, on the breakwater.
The relevant Imray-Iolaire charts show the location and capacity of all hauling facilities in Venezuela and the ABC islands. Colombian HO charts are excellent, but only available in Cartagena. However CMap and possibly other electronic chart manufacturers do cover the Colombian coast using the Colombian HO office info. If using electronic charts, ascertain if they are
using US or BA info, as only the electronic charts based on the Colombian HO info will give detailed info on yacht anchorages. Zydler’s The Panama Guide is also excellent.
The Traditional Route to FloridaThe traditional route to the Miami or Fort Lauderdale
area departs from St. Thomas or Puerto Rico, taking a course of roughly northwest, skirting the northern edge of Muchoir and Silver Banks and the northeast-ern edge of the Bahamas, until you reach the north-east Providence Channel. Then swing west, through the northeast/north/west Providence Channel and on to Florida. On this route you should be broad reach-ing, or sailing dead downwind before the Trades. [See downwind rig described above.]
This trip should be duck soup, but unfortunately it has proven to be a great problem for insurance under-writers. I think the reason such a great number of boats are lost off the Bahamas is that they are coming from an area of high islands with, in most cases, deep water right up to the shore, then transiting an area of low islands with off-lying reefs and shoals extending two, three or even four miles offshore. I always say, “If you see a Bahamian island, you are two miles too close!” The only things you should see when sailing from the Eastern Caribbean to Miami are the tops of the lighthouses on San Salvador and at the northern end of Eleuthera, and the top of the light marking the south end of the northwest Providence Channel.
It is useful to carry a guidebook to the Bahamas. If you have a breakdown and must stop there, with aid of a guidebook you can find your way into a harbor of refuge — entering in daylight only, of course. (Twice it has been necessary for me to do this on delivery trips.)
When crossing the Gulf Stream to Florida, lay your course well to the south of your landfall, as the Stream (which can run as strong as three knots) will carry you northwards. —Continued on next page
SAILING DIRECTIONS BY DON STREET
Leaving the CaribbeanPart One: To Panama or the East Coast
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the
— Continued from previous page It can be most discouraging, after your long trip from
the Caribbean, to discover you are north of your entrance and have to beat to windward against the prevailing southwesterlies and a two to three-knot north-running current.
A faster route with fewer navigational dangers is to head west from St. Thomas, skirt the north coasts of Puerto Rico and Hispanola, then sail through the Old Bahama Channel favoring the Cuban side (it is better marked and has deeper water close to shore). Then head north to the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area.
To the CarolinasThe best routing is subject to much debate. I favor
leaving from St. Thomas and heading roughly north-west, using the same route as one takes to the Fort Lauderdale/Miami area, passing north of the Muchoir and Silver Banks, and via the Bahamas. But instead of going through the Providence Channel, pass north of Grand Bahama, run over to the Gulf Stream, pick up the Stream and head northwards. With luck you will carry the Trades all the way up to the Gulf Stream, then with the Stream underneath you will be wearing seven league boots. If a northwest front is predicted you can duck into Charleston and either wait it out or continue north via the ICW. If there is no norther predicted, ride the Stream right up to Morehead City/Beaufort.
Alternately, leave St. Thomas and take a rhumb line course northwest about 1,200 miles to Charleston. This is considerably shorter than the route described above but you will rapidly sail out of the Trades into an area of calm or variable wind. Only boats that sail well and have crews willing to do a lot of sail changes, or have considerable range under power, should use this route.
To the ChesapeakeIf you can’t negotiate the ICW (your mast must be
able to pass under the 65-foot high bridge just south of Norfolk, and your keel must draw less than nine feet), sail a rhumb line from the Eastern Caribbean to a point 100 miles east of Norfolk, Virginia. Norfolk is at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. When you approach the latitude of Norfolk, turn west.
Cape Hatteras, just below the Chesapeake, has been known as a graveyard for ships for over 500 years. Many people feel that the only way to pass Cape Hatteras is to either have it 30 miles to the east of you (i.e. be in the ICW), or 200 miles to the west of you. Imagine a boat riding the Gulf Stream northward up the coast near Cape Hatteras. If a northwester comes in, the wind switches north and then northeast, giving 20, 30 or even 40 knots of wind against the three-knot Stream. The resulting sea conditions are such that no progress can be made. Once the wind goes northeast, Cape Hatteras and the coast north of it become dead lee shores.
Most yachts will be able to obtain warnings of approaching northwesterly winds. But when a north-wester blows through, not only are you beating to windward but the temperature drops — sometimes to freezing. Every single member of the crew must be fully outfitted for severely cold, wet weather.
The Bermuda RouteHeading north via Bermuda, the first part of the trip
is usually a wonderful sail. Leave the Eastern Caribbean and aim for the North Star. The wind should be on the beam, giving a good fast reach. If the wind is north of east, don’t worry about staying on the rhumb line, just trim the sails and adjust the course so that you are going as quickly and comfortably as possible. Even if you are driven below the rhumb line, at about latitude 27°N the wind will ease off and by latitude 29° or 30° it will frequently die out altogether. Usually when you come out of the calm spell, the wind comes in from the southwest. If you are west of the rhumb line, ease sheets and head for Bermuda. The loom can be spot-ted 30 or more miles off.
When you arrive in Bermuda, entering St. George at night is not advisable. Although the channel is well lit, shore lights make it difficult to correctly pick out the navigation lights. Once you have entered, go alongside the Customs dock and clear.
Boats heading for the States via Bermuda should be sufficiently provisioned and prepared to by-pass Bermuda if necessary. Bermuda attracts gales like a magnet, and entering the narrow St. George Channel in gale conditions is extremely dangerous.
When leaving Bermuda to head for the States, wait until late May or early June. It is essential that you obtain a really good long-range weather forecast. It is pretty much a rhumb line course, but try to ascertain what the Gulf Stream is doing. Frequently there is a southeast meander, which will stop you almost dead. Back in 1975, when the Gulf Stream was not as well documented as it is today, Iolaire hit a southeast meander while heading northwest. After sailing hard for 24 hours, we discovered we had made only 40 miles! As per previous warnings, watch out for a north-wester. Being stuck in the middle of the Stream with a strong northwester blowing against the Stream is not something any seaman likes to contemplate.
Next Month: Leaving the Caribbean, Part Two: To Europe.
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TOURS & CRUISES - CAR & JEEP RENTAL
The Passing of a Pioneer
Charter Skipperby Deb Andrews
Peter Keily known as “Irish Pete” died peacefully at the age of 85 in Torrington House Nursing
Home, Barbados.Irish Pete was best known in the
1970s and ’80s as one of the first char-ter skippers at The Moorings’ base in the British Virgin Islands. His shy character and quiet Irish lilt endeared him to many of those early charterers, and made him one of the best-loved captains in the Virgin Islands. He was not a great storyteller in the traditional sense, and yet when he had a story to tell, it was told with a paucity of words, an Irish idiom and punctuated with a warm giggle that was unforgettable. And his stories were legion, as Irish Pete lived his life to the full from the day he left his father’s bakery in Dungarvon, County Waterford, in his teens, to the day he died.
His love affair with the sea started before even he could remember, and as a teenager he saved up and bought his first boat, a Bantry Bay. He secured a job aboard a coal freighter that plied between Liverpool and Dun Laoghaire. Baking bread was not in his genes, the sea was.
Those early trips between England and Ireland came to an abrupt halt one night in Liverpool docks. After the last pub closed, Pete appeared at the end of the pier, only to remember that his ship was anchored some distance out from the dock. Shrugging off his jacket he dove off the pier, quite prepared to swim out to his bunk.
But he forgot that the tide was out!It was some time before they dug him out of the deep sticky mud and declared that his back was broken.
In Liverpool they told him he would never walk again. But Pete could be stubborn and difficult for all his shy demeanour, and he insisted that they put him on a ferry to Ireland.
Once back in Ireland Pete made his way to a “bonesetter” in County Waterford, a member of an Irish fraternity who have set bones since the Battle of Clontarf and before, passing on the secret knowledge cen-tury after century. And before long Pete’s six-foot frame was as upstanding as it had ever been and he left Ireland once more.
This time he signed on for bigger adventures. As a merchant navy seaman he visited Shanghai and Port Said, Adelaide and Hong Kong — you name the port, he knew the best pubs. Pete was never a ladies’ man, although he had romanced a few with his bright blue eyes and his courteous Irish charm over the years. But no lady ever supplanted the love of his life, the sea.
His fascination with boats and the sea continued to grow and he always had a yacht moored up the Hamble River on the south coast of England. She was always there for him when he stepped off a merchant-man in Southampton after a three- or six-month stint at sea.
In the late ’60s he upgraded to Valerie, a lovely wooden sloop known to Pete and his friends as “de Valerie”! It was on Valerie that he made his first big singlehanded crossing, from England to Antigua.
Unfortunately it took him three years to actually leave England as he couldn’t get his new-fangled self-steering to work. It was another old BVI charter skipper, Dan Bowen, who left three years earlier expecting Pete to follow right behind him (it was a “last one into Nelson’s Dockyard in Antigua buys the rum” arrange-ment) who sorted him out. Dan did two years of skippering around Antigua and then sailed back to the Solent one summer to find out where on earth Pete had got to. “Dis new self-steering doesn’t work, Dan, do it?” quoth Irish Pete. Dan showed him, with some resistance from Pete, that he had the lines on back to front. Pete let loose with his strongest exclamation, one that was Pete’s and Pete’s alone: “Oh my, oh my, oh my!”
And soon after, they set sail for Antigua, Pete carrying only a large barrel of beer lashed to his keel-stepped mast for sustenance. When Dan Bowen’s mother who came to see them off asked to see his food lockers, Pete’s now-famous response was to point at the sturdily tied barrel and say “Dere’s enuff vitamins in dat to see me to Antigua!”
After a few years working and chartering in Antigua Pete moved to the BVI and started his long career for the Moorings.
Pete settled in Maya Cove, now known as Hodge’s Creek, and finally sold Valerie, replacing her with Saganor, a fibreglass boat that needed a lot less maintenance. This meant that when he was not working he could relax and enjoy his idyllic mooring spot in Maya Cove. He loved the BVI and it was his home for nearly 40 years.
Pete was a well-known figure in Maya Cove, sailing Saganor on and off his mooring in what became a very crowded anchorage. Only two years ago, he and Wilf Wild, both in their 80s, were still spending each hurri-cane season in the mangroves along the south coast of Puerto Rico, drinking El Presidente and dining on Puerto Rican barbecued chicken in the company of old cruising friends.
It was on the personalities of those unique hardy individuals like Irish Pete, Fritz Seyforth, Ross Norgrove, Wilf Wild and Dan Bowen that the success of the modern BVI chartering industry was founded. These men are legend and Pete is one of the last.
Pete’s knowledge of sailing ran bone deep, and yet he would never boast to those less knowledgeable or experienced than himself. I once did the Round Tortola Race with him and at one point there was an altercation between the six would-be skippers we had on board that day. And I turned to Pete who sat in a corner of the cockpit, watching them silently with his usual Old Milwaukee clasped in his huge seaman’s hand. “Pete,” said I, thinking to draw him in and make a definitive deci-
sion. “What do you think?” He raised his beer can in a familiar motion of dismissal, “Oh my,” he said with that blue eyed mustachioed smile of his, “Oh my!” That was all. Needless to say, we didn’t win that year.
Irish Pete’s ashes will be scattered at sea close to his beloved British Virgin Islands.
Esteemed by friends and family, Irish Pete was never a ladies’ man — his first love was the sea
Pete sailed Valerie from England to Antigua
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APRIL 2008
� ARIES (21 Mar - 20 Apr) Your humor and business ships are still in irons. Speed
made good to windward seems agonizingly slow. However, romance is a good distraction and should keep you enter-tained until the third week.
� TAURUS (21 Apr - 21 May)After the second week you may have rough weather in
your love life. Concentrate on your creative pursuits to make the best of your time.
� GEMINI (22 May - 21 Jun) You’ll feel full of energy and good humor. Get some boat
projects underway to make the most of these aspects.
CANCER � (22 Jun - 23 Jul)Even with light airs in your sense of humor and bumpy
seas in your love life, your business prospects should continue to have strong, steady winds.
� LEO (24 Jul - 23 Aug) For every tack you make, it will seem the winds will shift
to back your sails. It would be best just to spend time with friends and not worry about boat projects now.
� VIRGO (24 Aug - 23 Sep) Now that skies have cleared in your love life, it’s a good
time to just relax and spend time on board making cruis-ing plans.
� LIBRA (24 Sep - 23 Oct) Your love life will meet rough seas but your sense of
humor will sail you through. You’ll have lots of energy, so attack those boat projects you’ve been putting off.
SCORPIO (24 Oct - 22 Nov) While business or finance should show some promise,
your love life will be on a slog to windward after the 15th. Concentrate on whatever small positives your business prospects offer.
SAGITTARIUS (23 Nov - 21 Dec) Your love life will keep you busy for the first two weeks
and your creativity will be anchored alongside, so get as much done as possible before mid-month.
� CAPRICORN (22 Dec - 20 Jan) You’re still in the doldrums with business, creativity, love
and your sense of humor. After mid-month, the love part of all this should see a favorable breeze.
� AQUARIUS (21 Jan - 19 Feb) Your drive and sense of humor are in good aspect, so hop
to it and clear up any boat projects left undone.
PISCES (20 Feb - 20 Mar)There will be new business opportunities coming, so
don’t be wishy-washy — say “aye-aye!”
Crossword SolutionACROSS2) VIA3) VALVES7) VEGA8) VESSEL9) VANE12) VAIL13) VARIABLES15) VERIFY19) VANGUARD20) VELOCITY23) VAN24) VALUATION
DOWN1) VIE2) VEER4) VANES5) VARIATION 6) VEERING9) VALUES10) VAT11) VERY12) VANG13) VICTOR14) VENDUE16) VALKYRIE
17) VACUUMS18) VOYAGES19) VENTRAL20) VANGEE21) VALUE22) VEIN23) VANN
parlumps marooned
Island Island PoetsPoets
Keep Me CleanI am the deep blue sea.I hold many wondersand colourful fishes —the ones you see.
If you keep me cleanI will glow and shine.You can dive for treasure.One sea; true beauty likeno other kind.
Remember, marine life couldbe at stakeif you continue to polluteseas, rivers and lakes.
Water pollution has become commonin our region.It will not only affect fishes,but the lives of everyone.
— Keithon Grant
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The focus is on dream: in the foreground, fronds; then the trackless earth like goldmelts to a curve of palm and sand that borders a wide bay cool, azure, unpeopled;and there at anchor the yacht — very small in the distance but clear, in silhouetteor with her sails lazy, unfurled on deck, spent. A photograph that’s hard to get,
this one’s of Eleuthera, blue-hulled and steel, languid now, a mere glimmerof wakes past and to come; of her graceful famous lines and ruggedness, all gossamer.As the Pole fields draw the compass, she draws you and speaks of some totalityuntil the photo is no longer seeming but true, and of no century.
Captain Cook climbed hills like this to chart the coast unknown before Endeavor.Today, the view excites in the windward eye the same sense of what it is to discovernot the world of islands, but an island world: and what perspective comes with distanceon your voyaging to this far place and near of the soul, to this pièce de résistance.
I have stood in Greenland and felt the same way seeing the big ketch, my wing and bond, far below, nearly icebound, elusive still; have felt the time in my bones respondto her rare image of friendship and adventure in the soft rough palm of Nature’s hand, of a personal enlargening — a view surely a landsman can understand.
— Richard Dey
Bill Robinson’s Favorite Photograph:
The Pitons, St. Lucia
bob williamson
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‘Nautical Alphabet: V1’
ACROSS2) ___ Lactea: the Milky Way3) Pressure control devices7) Bright star in Lira8) General name for any sort of ship9) Wind indicator12) To lower topsails in salute13) Unsteady winds15) Authenticate19) Forefront20) Rate of movement23) Short for 19 Across24) Estimation of worth
DOWN1) Compete2) Pay out chain or line4) Plural of 9 Across5) Magnetic anomaly affecting compass6) With wind, the opposite of backing9) Esteems10) Large tub11) Colored signal flare12) Device to control a gaff or boom13) “V” in radio speak14) Marine auctioneer: ____ master16) 1894 America’s Cup contender17) Empty spaces18) Sea trips19) Pertaining to the belly20) Contrivance for working a bilge pump by means of a barrel and crank21) Worth22) Blood vessel23) David ____, author of true sea adventures
P R V S A I N T B R C O U N TO V I N C E N T A A O C R O NA B R I T I S H R M M O D E TL O G I X A R U B E P O V U EA N I C E T B R U R A I R E HG A N S H A N I D I S K R A JU E I M E B O S A C S L I P AA B S T K I T T S A S T U B MD B L O M A R T I N I Q U E AA I A B U G I R V A N C P S IL R N A Y O N H O J T S O O CO A D G U N I X I O R C T S AU C S O M A D I S W I R H H OP U G R E N A D A A R O C I RE I S L A N D O C O T R E U P
Crossword Solution on page 38
Word Puzzle solution on page 55
Word Puzzle by Pauline Dolinski
© Caribbean Compass 2008
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For several months, we have been looking at the various organizations which are working towards a better understanding of the oceans and seas of the world. This month, let’s look at one of their findings.
News items from early February 2008 reported the amazing journey of a leath-erback turtle from where it was first tagged on a beach in Indonesia across the Pacific Ocean to the west coast of the USA and almost back to Hawaii. A distance of 12,774 miles (20,588 kilometres) was measured in 647 days! This is a record for the longest recorded migration through the ocean. After that, the turtle didn’t stop swimming, but the battery on its tagging device ran out! So data about the turtle’s journey stopped transmitting. Just imagine how much more impressive the long distance record would have been if the technology hadn’t failed!
Leatherbacks are the largest turtles in the world. They measure six feet (two metres) or more in length and weigh, on average, around 1,300 pounds (600 kilos). They don’t have a shell like other turtles do, but the tough skin over the back bones gives the leatherback its name. They are found in all oceans and can withstand hot and cold temperatures at sea.
Leatherback turtles are considered to be critically endangered. Increased awareness of the nesting patterns of the leatherback has led to increased popula-tions in some areas. For example, in the Caribbean, Earthwatch’s Saving the
Leatherback Turtle project in St. Croix, USVI, has seen a big increase in the number of nesting leatherbacks there and in the number of hatchlings that sur-vive. However, in the western Pacific Ocean, the number of leatherbacks is esti-mated at about 5,000, down from an estimated 91,000 twenty-odd years ago. What is killing them?
Like other turtles, leatherbacks nest on a beach. Only the females come ashore. They use their massive flippers to dig a big hole in the sand where they lay about 80 eggs. If the nests are found by predators, then the eggs will be eaten and no baby leatherbacks can hatch. The adult turtles are also hunted for their meat. But the biggest dangers to the survival of these wonderful creatures are the haz-ards of the open sea. Thousands drown when they become entangled in fishing nets. Others swallow plastic bags because they look like their usual food, jelly-fish. The plastic clogs up their digestive systems so they starve.
Tagging the leatherbacks will give information vital to their survival. Now that scientists are recognizing how many countries are visited by leatherbacks, they also recognize the global effort needed to keep them alive.
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My name is Dolly and my home is in the sea.
DOLLY’S DEEP SECRETSby Elaine Ollivierre
The Wedding of Mermaid Merry and Gem
by Lee Kessell
A whole year had passed since Merman Marcus and his lovely wife, Mother Mermaid, had celebrated their wedding anniversary with the grandest ball that any-one on the reef had ever been to. If you were there you would know that Merman Marcus, like all of his kind, lived in the deeps of the sea where all was calm, while Mother Mermaid, who had pined for her sunny coral home had opted to return to the reef. This didn’t mean that they had ceased to love each other, not a bit of it! No, they often spent time together but each felt happiest living where they did — one in the pearly moon deeps, the other on the sun-spangled reef. They had promised to have an even grander ball this year and so Gem, their son who had been courting Mermaid Merry all year — although she had made up her mind to marry Gem the night of the ball — had decided to make it a double celebration. Gem and Mermaid Merry would have their wedding and ball together.
Mother Mermaid and Merman Marcus thought this a splendid idea and prepara-tions had been going on for weeks. First, Mermaid Merry had to have the most beau-tiful wedding dress ever created, so of course she asked Mr. Needlefish to make it for her. Merry had caught her gorgeous golden ball gown on a coral snag going to last year’s ball and Mr. Needlefish had sewn the jagged rent together with such fine stitches of gold thread that it was impossible to see where the tear had been. Mr. Needlefish was now making Merry a white gown, with a swirling skirt fine as sea foam. The bodice was fitted tightly to Merry’s slender figure. It had little puff sleeves and a sweetheart neckline and the whole thing was embroidered with pearl tear-drops, silver sequins and rainbow bubbles as small as grains of sea rice. Pure white netted sea drift had been woven into a short bridal veil that fell to Merry’s shoulders and it was pinned to her long red hair that curled all about her face, with the blos-soms of soft coral. Moonbeams had been captured and these were woven into the wedding veil making it glitter with every movement.
So, here it was at last, the morning of the wedding. Merry had spent a long time getting ready in her coral cottage and she had many willing helpers. The glassy sweepers acted as her mirrors, Angelfish and Damsels fussed about and Mr. Needlefish was on hand to make sure that his most magnificent creation fitted cor-rectly with just a little stitch added here and there. When Merry was dressed at last, Mr. Needlefish stood back and grunted with pleasure; yes, this was his finest hour and he felt sure he would never surpass it.
Merry’s bouquet was a beautiful combination of white leafy Scroll Blades, the edges
touched with soft green. The delicate scrolls were curled around the ruffled discs of small white and green Mermaid’s Wine Glasses, each one holding a glistening blue sea pearl. When a silver flyingfish blew the tiny moonbeams he had captured the night before onto the bouquet it seemed to dance in the filtered light of the sun shining down upon the reef. Everyone was spellbound when Merry picked up her bouquet and her smile outshone all of the sun, moon and star spangles flashing about her.
Scores of brightly coloured reef fish — including Butterfly Fish clothed in gold and black, Chromis aglow in sapphire blue, Hamlets in royal purple, Parrotfish in tur-quoise scales and Wrasse decked out in their best rainbow finery — escorted the bride to the wedding chapel high on top of the coral reef.
Bridegroom Gem, all dazzling smiles himself was waiting for Merry at the altar. Gem of course had spent ages on his costume too! He had chosen to wear Royal Blue with golden suns embroidered on his long tunic and his curly black locks that framed his handsome face were held in check with a coronet of gold. This was a gift from his father who had found a treasure chest deep in the sea many years ago. Merman Marcus had looked forward to this day when he would crown his son with the golden coronet and present his new daughter-in-law with long ropes of pearls and emeralds. For his own wife he had chosen as her anniversary gift a fabulous necklace of deep red rubies and pink diamonds.
Ready to begin the wedding ceremony, a wise old Cardinal Fish in flame red waited with Gem, while every fish and creature from near and far hovered around to see their favourites wed at last! You can imagine the sighs of happiness that blended into a soft sea song all during the exchange of vows. Gem and Merry said nothing about “obeying” each other. What an old-fashioned notion! No, Gem and Merry believed in love and that was enough for them. Kisses were exchanged all round and Mother Mermaid hugged the newlyweds until Merman Marcus demanded that he be given a turn.
But now it was time for the feast and ball to begin and the proud parents led the way to the tables laden with nearly every sort of seafood you could imagine. Plates were heaped high but before the guests fell to, every chalice was raised high in hon-our of Merman Marcus, Mother Mermaid, Gem and Merry. Toasts were made, the guests clapped loud and long and then the feast began in earnest.
Just like at the last ball, some of the older folk drifted off to sleep after they had stuffed themselves as full as possible, but the young couples danced until the stars came out over the reef, shedding silver starlight down upon the party. You can be sure that the dancing and merry-making went on far into the night.
Before the new day began, everyone went home, little children carried by fathers and the old folk led by the youngsters. Merman Marcus went with Mother Mermaid to her palace in the reef and Merry took Gem home with her.
Now, the big question is, where were Merry and Gem going to live so that each could be happy with the other forever after? They had arrived at the perfect solution months before when Gem had chanced upon a beautiful seamount rising from the deep water. But you’ll just have to wait till next time to hear all about the seamount home of Mermaid Merry and Merman Gem. In the meantime, we’ll let the happy couple enjoy their honeymoon.
THE END
CRUISING KIDS’ CORNER
Ready to begin the wedding ceremony a wise old Cardinal Fish in flame red waited
Butterfly Fish clothed in gold and black, Chromis aglow in sapphire blue, Hamlets
in royal purple, Parrotfish in turquoise scales and Wrasse decked out in their best rainbow finery…
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THE TWELVE BOOKS OF
LAGOONIEVILLE
Buy Books 1 through 5 at:
Bookstores
Amazon.com
BarnesandNoble.com
Roguepublications.com
Lagoonieville.com
LLagOOnieville 2 — Colombian Secrets
The Hoard of the Incas, a legendary treas-
ure, was gathered from the Incan tribes
when the Conquistadors first invaded
South America. It was secreted in a place
impossible to find without precise instruc-
tions from an ancient high priest. With
those instructions is a promise of a fiery
death to any outsider who tries to take the
treasure.
The Mountain of Fire, 19,000 feet closer to God and only a heartbeat from hell
STOLEN
Catamaran sailing in the CaribbeanUNIQUE ALUMINUM BIMINI
WITH ARCH SEAT ABOVE BOOM LEVEL
Registration Papers are fraudulent * Vessel has NO FLAG
Vessel Name: JOB Previous Home Port: Vancouver B.C.
Type: Fountaine-Pajot Athena 38’ Colors: White with Navy Blue
$2000 Reward if information leads to real-time location of vessel.
Contact Elise (1) 305 600-2401 or: [email protected]
— Continued from page 13
Double-Ender Division WinnersClass 1 (12 feet)
Knowledge1) , Ryan Marks, BequiaRat2) , Michael Marks, Bequia
Class 2 (14 feet)My Love1) , Stanley Harry, BequiaBad Feelings2) , Samuel Forde, MayreauD Shark3) , Hudson Ollivierre, Canouan
Class 4 (16 feet)Liberty1) , Elmore Snagg, CanouanMarion2) , Damien Bess (Bequia), Mayreau
Class 5A (18 feet)Tornado1) , Kingsley Stowe/Ekron Bunyan, BequiaNerissa J2) , Vernon Laidlow, Canouan
Class 5B (18 feet)More Worries1) , Andy Mitchell, BequiaShanna-lou2) , Ray Leslie, BequiaDivine3) , Delacey Leslie, Bequia
Class 6 (27 feet)Limbo Dance1) , Allick Daniel, Bequia
Class 7 (28 feet)Bluff1) , Lachie King, BequiaConfusion2) , Wayne Goodling, BequiaCloudy Bay3) , Arnold Hazell, Bequia
George Corea accepts trophy from Parliamentary Representative Godwin Friday for Class 5A winner, Tornado
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Crossing the channels between Caribbean islands with a favorable tide will make your passage faster and more comfortable. The table below, courtesy Don Street, author of Street’s Guides and compiler of Imray-Iolaire charts, which shows the time of the meridian passage (or zenith) of the moon for this and next month, will help you calculate the tides.
Water, Don explains, generally tries to run toward the moon. The tide starts running to the east soon after moonrise, continues to run east until about an hour after the moon reaches its zenith (see TIME below) and then runs westward. From just after the moon’s setting to just after its nadir, the tide runs eastward; and from just after its nadir to soon after its rising, the tide runs westward. Times given are local.
Note: the maximum tide is 3 or 4 days after the new and full moons. For more information, see “Tides and Currents” on the back of all Imray Iolaire charts.
Fair tides!
MERIDIAN PASSAGE OF THE MOON
APRIL & MAY 2008
April 2008DATE TIME1 08112 08593 09464 10345 1122 (new)6 12147 1309 8 14089 151110 161511 171712 181613 191014 200015 204516 212817 221018 225119 233320 0000 (full)
21 001722 010323 015724 024125 033226 042327 051428 060229 065030 0736
May 2008DATE TIME1 08222 09093 09584 10525 1149 (new)6 12527 13588 15049 1607
10 170411 175612 184413 192814 201015 205116 213217 221518 230019 234720 0000 (full)21 003722 012823 021924 030925 035826 044527 053128 061529 070030 074731 0836
Call Ron Cooper (727) 367- 5004 • www.coopermarine.com
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Avoiding Despair with Outboard Repair
by Richard D. Fitser
Outboard motors are among the most important pieces of equipment on a cruising boat in the Caribbean. When they are on our dinghies they provide us with transport back and forth to the dock, to other boats and for recreation when diving and swim-ming. They are also used and abused until they fail. Outboards are really work-horses. With a little care they will give you good dependable service, especially the two-stroke motors.
As a former mobile marine mechanic, I specialized in outboard motors. I have rebuilt just about every type of outboard from one-cylinders to V8s motors. I’ve found that most people think that their outboards are just like their cars: put gas and oil in them and they will run. They don’t take into consideration the saltwater environ-ment in which the outboards operate. When you read the flat-rate manual, which tells how much time it should take to do a particular job on an outboard, there is an asterisk at the bottom of the page where it states: “If the motor is used in salt water, forget the manual; repair time is how long it takes to do the job.”
Preventive maintenance goes a long way. We should flush out our motors every day with fresh water to keep the cooling system clean. Yeah, right! Like we all have so much fresh water that we are going to waste it flushing the cooling system of an outboard. Well, if you want Yamaha to honor its warranty you must do just that. But we all know that this is never going to happen in the real world of cruising.
We can, however, spray down the power head with WD40, CRC, or any local spray lubricants once a month. At the same time grease all the cables and linkages around the carburetor. Then give all of the grease fittings about five pumps of grease to pre-vent the motor from freezing in one position. Now, since you are really getting into this maintenance mode, it would be a good time to change the lower unit oil. Every six months, or at least once a year, open the lower drain screw and see if any water drips out. Then put a container under the lower unit and open the top screw. Let the old oil drain out, being very careful not to drop the screws.
When the oil stops draining, replace the small amount of oil the lower unit contains (about 6 to 8 ounces in two-cylinder 10- or 15-horsepower motors) through the bot-tom drain. Spin the prop while doing this to get out any air.
—Continued on next page
Double trouble? The author seems to be chuckling at a new concept in twin outboards
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WALLILABOUANCHORAGEWALLILABOU BAY HOTEL
VHF Ch 16 & 68(range limited by the hills)...
PORT OF ENTRY
MOORING FACILITIES
WATER, ICE, SHOWERS
CARIBEE BATIK - BOUTIQUE
BAR AND RESTAURANT
TOURS ARRANGED
CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED
HAPPY HOUR 5-6
P.O. Box 851, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, West Indies.
Tel: (784) 458-7270 Fax: (784) 457-9917E-mail: [email protected]
BEQUIA, Port Elizabeth, Admiralty Bay Tel: (784) 457 3443 • e-mail: [email protected]
Bequia - Restaurant - Great Cocktails & Fun
Full Cable TV • Air Conditioning • Sportsbar • Pool Table
Bar open daily until… Sunday 6pm - 2amKitchen open Monday to Saturday 10am - 10pm
Menu: Burgers, Flying Fish, Philly Steak Sandwiches,Fajitas, Salads, Chicken Wings, Conch Fritters, etc. • Dinner Menu
Your Expert Guide to Carriacou’s Best DivingFind us right in the town of Hillsborough!Phone/Fax (473) 443-7882 and VHF CH 16
• Daily dives at 9.30 am and 1.30 pm or individually• Air-Fills at PADI 5 * Standard
• Scuba and Snorkel Gear Rental• PADI Courses from Beginner to Instructor
& 15 Specialties in English & Deutsch• Rendezvous Service for Sailors at Hillsborough,
Sandy Island & Tyrrel-Bay• Special Group Prices for Sailors
INSTRUCTOR TRAINING
B & C FUELS ENTERPRISE
Welcomes you to Petite Martinique
A stepping stone as you cruise through St. Vincent, Grenada and the Grenadines.Come alongside our splendid jetty and replenish your
supplies of FUEL, OIL, WATER and ICEat the cheapest prices in the Grenadines.
Call sign: “Golf Sierra” VHF channel 16For further information call Glenn Clement or
Reynold Belmar. Tel/Fax: (473) 443-9110
— Continued from previous page When the new oil leaks out of the top hole, the unit is full and you can replace the
top screw. Next, remove the filler tube and replace the bottom screw. I am sure by now you are saying, I wish I had two more hands when doing this procedure. It really is not hard or complicated. If you need help there are sure to be several old pro’s out there who would be glad to give you a hand on your first try.
Now get out your spark plug wrench and remove the plugs. (You do have a spark plug wrench, don’t you?) Take a good look at the plugs. Are they clean? Are the insulators a nice light brown? Is the gap close to specs? You need to get out the handbook on your outboard and check what the gap should be. It could be .030”, .040” or .060”. You will need a three-dollar feeler gauge to measure it. If it has been a couple of years since they have been checked, do yourself a favor and buy some new plugs. The NGK brand is usually pretty close to being gapped correctly from the factory, but it is always a good idea to check them before installing.
Now that you have put in the new plugs, look at the connector boots that you are going to put back on the plugs. Spray a little WD40 in there and push them on good and tight (make sure they snap on). Then put the cover back on the motor and put it back on the dinghy and start it up. Never run the motor out of the water without a water hose hooked up to it. That is the quickest way I know to destroy a water pump impeller.
Water pump impellers are another item most people don’t think about until the motor overheats. It is a good idea to check or even change the impeller once every two years. Even though the engine is running cool, periodic inspection will prevent the lower unit from being frozen in place. Just take off the lower unit and grease up all the connectors and bolts as you reinstall. The motor will show its appreciation by running smoothly for a long time.
If the outboard will not be used for an extended period (more than one month), run out all the gasoline from the carburetor. If this is not done, the gas will turn into varnish and will gum up the carburetor.
Perhaps one of the most important pieces of advice that I can give you is: use the best outboard oil you can find. It is the cheapest insurance you can get to keep your outboard running well. More is always better than less when adding oil to the gaso-line. A little extra oil just produces a little smoke and will not hurt a thing, although you might find yourself having to clean the plugs now and then.
A little preventive maintenance will go a long way toward getting good service from your outboard for a long time.
The Two-Cent Outboard Fix
Has your Yamaha lost its get-up and go? Well mine sure did and it just about drove me over the edge, although some people may say I didn’t really have that far to go. I spent a good deal of time and effort trying to solve this problem.
My 15-horsepower Yamaha was running like a 5-horse. It would not get up on a plane. This didn’t happen overnight; it was a gradual process. It first started taking longer to plane out, then needing more throttle to stay up on a plane. Finally it would not get up on a plane at all, just mush along.
I tried new spark plugs, no difference. I checked the compression. It was the same in both cylinders (120 PSI), no problem there. I made a spark tester and checked the spark. No problem there.
Well, as my Dad once told me, if you have good compression and good spark, the problem is fuel. So I took apart the carburetor, cleaned it, put it back together and reinstalled it. No difference. The motor started and ran at low speed as smooth as silk, but would not run at high speed. This was really driving me nuts. I fix other people’s outboards, but can’t get mine to run.
I tried to buy a rebuild kit for my carburetor in Venezuela, no luck. I tried to have some cruising friends who were going back to Texas get me the kit, still no luck. The Yamaha dealer said, “There is no such model number.” Some friends who were going to Canada checked with the dealer there. He said, “That model was not a North American model.” What? I bought it from a licensed Yamaha dealer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 2001.
I would like to say that I came up with the solution, but I didn’t. A friend described the problem he had with his 15-horsepower Yamaha Enduro, and it was the same as mine. He told me how a mechanic in Panama fixed his. It seems the Yamaha uses a very soft brass in its high-speed jets and the orifice enlarges over time, causing the motor to get too much fuel. This causes it to bog down at high speed. So the cure was to put three small copper wires into the jet, which leaned it out. So I tried it and it worked. I will get a new jet, but the two-cent fix is a great stopgap measure.
Here is how I made my “magic” wire. First I found a scrap piece of #12 marine wire. I stripped off about three inches of insulation and untwisted the wire. Then I snipped off three strands and twisted the ends together for a distance of about one inch. I took my needle-nose pliers and made a small loop in the twisted end (about 1/8 inch in diameter). I had already removed the carburetor bowl from the carburetor so I could insert the three wires into the jet. When I could see they could go no farther into the jet I removed them and snipped off about an inch. When reinstalled the little loop stuck out about 1/8 inch from the bottom of the jet.
Now it was time to put the bowl back on the carburetor and put the carburetor back on the motor. When I started up the motor it idled as it always did, but when I opened it up it jumped up on a plane and would plane out at one-third throttle as it did when it was new.
I only wish that I could claim that it was my idea. If your Yamaha is acting tired and nothing else seems to help, give it a try.
Richard D. Fitser was a former teacher, general contractor, and marine mechanic. He and his wife Diane left Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in June 2003, on their 38-foot ketch, Jabulani. They cruised down the island chain and west to Curaçao, spending much of the past three years on the north coast of Venezuela and its islands. Richard enjoyed helping people and healed many ailing outboards. Richard and Diane were anchored in Porlamar, Margarita, Venezuela, when he died of a heart attack on January 28th. He was buried on Margarita.
We are on-line:www.caribbeancompass.com
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Special 8-grain breadFresh Croissants daily
New location at former Le Petit JardinWir sprechen DeutschCredit Cards welcome!
Fine WinesImported Cheeses & Pastas
Daily Fresh Herbs & Produceand other gourmet foods
VHF 68Tel (784) 458-3625Fax (784) 457-3134
in Bequia
YACHT PROVISIONING
Your #1 Choice for Provisioning in the Grenadines.
Fine Wine, Cheeses, Fresh Fruits, Vegetables and Choice Meats
Monday-Saturday: 8am to 12pm & 3pm to 6pmSunday: 9am to 12pm
THE FOOD STORE Corea’s Mustique
Tel: (784) 488-8479 Fax: (784) 456-5230
Bequia MarinaOpen Monday to Saturday 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.Look for the Big Blue Building and ask for Stan or Miguel!Water, Diesel, Ice, Bottled Water and Dockage available.
The Yacht Club, Bequia Marina, Port Elizabeth, Bequia, St. Vincent & The Grenadines
VHF 68, Telephone 784-457-3361
There is such a thing as a free brunch, at least in the Compass world! It’s our annual way of saying “thanks” to those who provide the content that makes Caribbean Compass what its readers say is “the most interesting, useful, informative and entertaining monthly” serving boating interests in the Caribbean.
This year on Thursday, March 20th, 40 guests from far and near gathered in Bequia for the occasion. The venue for Compass Writers’ Brunch 2008 was Mac’s Pizzeria, a landmark on the shore of Admiralty Bay and a prime spot for viewing the scores of yachts arriving for the Bequia Easter Regatta.
Our guest speaker was Sharon McIntosh, Manager of the Caribbean Marine Association (CMA), Chairman of the Yachting Steering Committee of Trinidad & Tobago, and former General Manager of the Yacht Services Association of Trinidad & Tobago. Sharon is an economist by trade, specializing in sector development. Among other topics, her talk raised awareness of how the Caribbean’s national and regional recreational-boating trade associations can help inform yacht-friendly policies and decisions at governmental levels. Examples of such accomplishments include the CMA’s role last year in having the APIS (Advance Passenger Information System) suspended for yachts in the interest of protecting the Eastern Caribbean’s yacht tourism industry. Also to boost that sector, the CMA is currently lobbying in the English-speaking Eastern Caribbean to have a single Customs clearance form for yachts.
Sharon’s talk kicked off a lively open discussion of bureaucracy vis-à-vis yachting, ranging from cruisers’ relating first-hand experiences with clearance paperwork, to yachtsman and former St. Vincent & the Grenadines Prime Minister Sir James Mitchell sharing his long-term perspective from the governmental side.
Conversations continued over an abundant and scrumptious brunch buffet pre-pared by Judy Simmons and her Mac’s Pizzeria staff. Boat cards and business cards flew from hand to hand as new contacts and new friends were made.
Present at Compass Writers Brunch 2008, in addition to those mentioned above, were Caribbean Compass contributors Richard Ashton, Herman Belmar, Bob Berlinghof, Steve Manley, Morris Nicholson, Roland O’Brien, Mariann Palmborg, Frank Pearce, Dave Richardson, Jo-Anne Sewlal, Jerry Stewart (who is also our Carriacou agent), Donald Stollmeyer, Amal Thomas, Lucy Tulloch (who is also our Antigua agent), Ann Vanderhoof and Nathalie Ward and their invited guests. These writers and photographers were joined by Compass Publishing’s “cockpit crew” Debra Davis, Wilfred Dederer, Sally Erdle, Tom Hopman and Elaine Ollivierre.
To those many contributors unable to attend this year, we thank you, too, for all your talent and efforts and hope to see you at a future Compass Writers’ Brunch, always the Thursday before Easter.
Above: Veteran cruising correspondent Dave Richardson’s question about cumbersome yacht clearance procedures generated intense discussion
Left: Guest speaker Sharon McIntosh stated that in the interest of improving the sub-region’s marine tourism sector, the CMA is lobbying for a common yacht clearance form
Compass Correspondents’Annual Get-Together
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Basil’s Bar Mustique
WE SHIP AROUND THE WORLD!
Visit Basil’s in Mustique or St. Vincentwww.basilsbar.com [email protected]
Visitors to Mustique are invited to:BASIL’S BAR AND RESTAURANT: Basil’s Bar in Mustique was named one of the World’s Ten Best Bars in 1987 by Newsweek magazine and today lives up to that tradi-tion. Recently renovated the new face of Basil’s Bar in Mustique is all that and more offering the freshest seafood, steaks and pastas for dinner. Terrific lunches and break-fasts. Now equipped with WIFI you can enjoy sunset cocktails and catch up on the web. Basil’s Bar is home and originator of the Mustique Blues Festival, January 21 - February 4, 2009. Breakfast service begins at 8:00 AM, Lunch is served 11:00 AM - 6 PM, Dinner at 7:30 until late. Come to Basil’s for Cocktails anytime and plan to attend the Wednesday night Jump up and BBQ. Call 784-488-8350 or VHF 68.
BASIL’S BOUTIQUE Fabrics as bright as the sea and as light as air... perfect for island joy. Elegant island evening and playful day wear. For women, men and children, plus lots of T-shirts to take home. Basil’s Boutique also offers silver and gemstone jewel-ry.
BASIL’S GREAT GENERAL STORE: There is nothing general about Basil’s Great General Store - stocked with fine French wines, cheeses from Europe, sauces and gourmet jams. Imported cigars. Fine foods in Paradise. Call 784-488-8407
ACROSS FOREVER: Imagine, decorating your home with Antiques from Bali and India - contemporary pieces and fabulous lighting. Across Forever has a magnificent collection of furniture and home accessories from Asia. Shipping is easily and efficiently arranged. Call 784-488-8407
Visitors to St Vincent are invited to:BASIL’S BAR: In St Vincent - near the port of Kingstown is an 18th century cob-blestone building where you may find Basil’s Restaurant and Bar. Air conditioned, you will enjoy cocktails most delightful, the staff most welcoming and the meals, some of the best on the island. Call 784-457-2713
PIZZAby Ross Mavis
It was an unexpected treat for me, and no doubt countless others. When staying on the magical island of Bequia a while back, we enjoyed a lobster pizza from Mac’s Pizzeria on the shore of Admiralty Bay.
When Pizza Pie arrived on the North American commercial scene some 50 years ago, few people realized how popular this fast food would become. Its quick accep-tance by all ages soon brought large food companies like Kraft to develop lackluster pizza mixes in a box. An envelope of baking ingredients for the crust, a can of tomato and herb sauce and small packet of Parmesan cheese enticed many families to try this “new” exotic Italian food. Some families were satisfied with the less than perfect results, but many were disappointed.
The first pizza franchise restaurants were formed and soon flourished. Many inde-pendents sprang up as well and continue even today in a society where chain owner-ship and branding dominate.
The thin but crispy crust of good pizza, with a sauce and topping of your own choosing and lots of melted grated Mozzarella cheese, is difficult to beat for an out-of-hand meal. The ability to add or delete the myriad toppings available, and the choice of your own specially formulated tomato-based sauce or simple herb-infused oil allows complete customization.
Good pizza was not new to my wife and me ever since she was given a recipe for fantastic pizza dough. While sailing in the Caribbean in the early 1970s after cruis-ing through Europe and crossing the Atlantic in a 29-foot Scampi sloop, a Swedish design, my wife Willa encountered this excellent pizza dough recipe.
“In Turks and Caicos we met a Canadian couple from a mining town in Ontario,” Willa says. “They were sailing a concrete ketch and we spent a few days anchored next to them. She was Italian and we all loved good food. We had a gas oven, fairly uncommon then, and they had a great recipe for pizza dough. Between us we mus-tered up some tasty topping ingredients.”
The friendship became instantaneous when our sloop’s small oven turned out many little pizzas. To this day the pizza dough recipe is dutifully kept in Willa’s cruising cookbook and referred to regularly when authentic thin-crust pizza is wanted. It’s a real snap to make and rises wonderfully in the warmth and humidity of the Caribbean.
We’re pleased to share this superb recipe with other cruisers and encourage you to make delicious pizza from this 40-year-old cruising recipe.
Caribbean Pizza Dough1/4 Cup lukewarm water1 teaspoon sugar1 envelope dry yeast1/4 Cup milk1/4 Cup hot water3/4 teaspoon salt3 Tablespoons cooking oil2 1/4 Cups sifted all-purpose flourMeasure lukewarm water into a medium bowl, add sugar and stir until dissolved.
Sprinkle yeast onto water and let stand for about 10 minutes. Stir well. Combine milk and hot water and stir into yeast mixture. Add salt and flour, mixing until thick and sticky. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured board and knead until dough is smooth and elastic.
Put dough into a large bowl oiled with the cooking oil. Roll dough around to coat lightly with oil and let rise in a warm place until double in size, about 45 minutes. Cut risen dough in two and pat each portion onto a 14-inch pizza pan. Top with your favorite tomato pizza sauce, onions, olives, green peppers and mushrooms. Add any sausage, salami, pepperoni, hamburger or bacon to your liking. We have even had great results using sliced wieners. Shredded lobster or crab also makes an incredible seafood pizza à la Mac’s.
Cover toppings with lots of grated mozzarella cheese. Bake in hot oven until crust is nicely browned and cheese is bubbling.It’s even almost as good on shore.
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Stock Upon the widest selection and the
best prices in Grenada at our two
conveniently located supermarkets.
Whether it’s canned goods, dairy
products, meat, fresh vegetables
or fruits, toiletries, household goods,
or a fine selection of liquor and wine,
The Food Fair has it all and a lot more.
Hubbard’sJONAS BROWNE & HUBBARD (G’da.) Ltd.
The Carenage:
Monday - Thursday
8 am to 5:30 pm
Friday until 8:45 pm
Saturday until
1:00 pm
Tel: (473) 440-2588
Grand Anse:
Monday - Thursday
9 am to 5:30 pm
Friday & Saturday
until 7:00 pm
Tel: (473) 444-4573
MAC’S PIZZERIA
In addition to our famous pizza we offer seasonal specialties and fresh baked goods.
Open daily from 11:00am to 10:00pm. Situated in Admiralty Bay, Bequia between
the Frangipani and Plantation House.For Reservations: VHF Ch68
or Tel: (784) 458 3474Closed on Mondays
The West Indies have a very unusual fruit, the tamarind. The lumpy, six-inch pods can have as many as 12 seeds buried in the edible, sticky brown paste. The shells are brittle and break easily when the pods are fully ripe. I can’t think of any fruit other than tamarind that can just stay ripe on the tree for months. Once you taste it, as ugly as it is, you will be hooked. Can you say why you love the flavor of the pulp, or even describe the flavor as sour or sweet? But you just love tamarind!
Tamarind trees are slow to mature to the grandeur of 70-foot height and 30-foot width. It’s a hearty, wind-resistant tree that can adapt to most conditions, and only needs well-drained soil. Enjoy the shade.
When green, the pods can be used as a seasoning and are boiled with rice. The tamarind pulp is used in a variety of sauces including Worcestershire (“English”) sauce.
Tamarind balls, a candy, are probably the most com-mon way of eating the pulp. To make them, remove the shell, separate the pulp from the seeds, work the goo on a colander and keep adding powdered sugar. Shape the strained-pulp/sugar mixture into one-inch balls and roll in granulated sugar. They are a mess to make but delicious to savor.
Tamarind water is another easy treat. Put is as many shelled fruits as you choose (more will make a stronger flavor) in a bottle of water overnight. Cloves, ginger, and even a hot pepper may be added to enhance the flavor. Add sugar to your taste.
In Thailand they grind the dry tamarind seeds to make a coffee substitute. The seeds have a property that makes things gel better than pectin and which is used as a stabilizer for ice creams.
The tamarind is considered the only spice to have originated in Africa, although India also tries to claim the delicious fruit. The word tamarind translates as “Indian date” (tamar hindi), and India is the world’s largest producer.
The pulp is high in calcium and Vitamin B. Tamarind pulp has only 50 calories in two ounces with some protein and fiber. Fresh pulp can be applied directly on inflammations and used as a rinse for a sore throat. Boiled tamarind leaves and flowers can be used as poultices for sprains and arthritis. A tea from the tree’s bark makes an excellent tonic. Pets infested with fleas or ticks can be washed and then rinsed with strong tamarind water — let it dry on them. Hard tamarind heart wood makes the best hoe handles, and mortars and pestles.
Tamarind Black Beans 2 Cups black beans, pre-soaked1/4 Cup tamarind paste2 Cups hot water1/3 Cup oil2 medium onions, chopped2 Tablespoons minced garlic2 Tablespoons grated fresh ginger1 hot pepper seeded and chopped fine (optional)1 teaspoon ground cumin1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric1 large tomato, chopped small2 teaspoons roasted cumin seeds1 teaspoon garam massala2 bundles chadon bene, choppedsalt to tasteSoak black beans in water overnight. Soak tamarind
paste in hot water for an hour. When it has cooled, work the paste between your hands to produce a strong juice. Set beans and tamarind juice aside.
In a large skillet heat oil and sauté the onions until they brown. Add garlic and ginger and cook for five minutes. Stir constantly or it will stick. Add the hot pepper, cumin and turmeric, cook for a half a minute and remove from the heat.
Stir in the tomato, the beans and 2 cups of water, Cook covered until beans are tender. Add water as necessary to provide a good sauce.
Stir in the tamarind paste and simmer for ten min-utes. Add the roasted cumin seeds, garam massala, and chadon bene. Cook for five minutes and remove from heat; let sit for ten minutes before serving.
Tamarind Chutney3/4 Cup water1/4 Cup tamarind paste1/3 Cup seedless raisins1 Tablespoon sugar1 teaspoon roasted cumin seeds, ground
1 hot pepper, seeded and minced1 teaspoon lemon juicesalt to tasteBring water to a boil before adding tamarind paste,
raisins and sugar. Remove from heat and soak for an hour. Work the tamarind paste into a creamy juice while adding the spices, pepper and lemon juice. Blend it with a spoon or an electric blender. Cover and let the chutney stand at room temperature overnight.
Tasty Tamarind Veggies — a different stir-fry!2 Cups water1/3 Cup tamarind paste1 large onion, sliced3 cloves of garlic, minced2 teaspoons finely chopped ginger root1 hot pepper, seeded and minced or whole (optional)2 Tablespoons curry powder1 large sweet pepper, seeded and chunked2 cups cauliflower florets1/4 Cup sliced mushrooms 1 large carrot, chunked1 bunch bodi beans, chopped into one-inch pieces1 Cup coconut milk3 Tablespoons oil2 cups chana (chick peas/garbanzo beans)3 Tablespoons chopped chadon beneBoil one cup of the water and add the tamarind paste.
Let it sit for an hour and then work it soft. Set aside.In a large frying pan with a cover heat the oil, cook
the onion, garlic, ginger and hot pepper for five min-utes and then add the curry powder. Cook for three minutes. Add vegetables. Simmer covered for five min-utes. Increase the heat and add 1/3 Cup of the soft-ened tamarind paste and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the chana and sim-mer until they are tender. Sprinkle with chadon bene.
For the farmers: To get the best results in both num-ber of pods and amount of pulp, fertilize trees to three years old with a cup of 6-6-3 fertilizer about three times a year. Bearing trees should get 8-3-9, at a cup for every five years of age at the same intervals.
SERVING AT SEA BY SHIRLEY HALL
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Dear Compass,Thank you for publishing in the January issue the
letter from Gabriele Drucker on the exemption of for-eign vessels for national clearance in Venezuela. Unfortunately it came too late for us as we had already done our national check-in from Margarita to Venezuela in January. We had asked in Porlamar and in Puerto La Cruz and no one really seemed to know the rules: some continued to do it and others were ignoring it. Now at least it is definitive. I shall keep that article handy for our movements within Venezuela.
We are in Cumaná having our boat painted at the Navimca boatyard. The workers are doing a wonderful job and we have no complaints. We are comfortable in the yard and take the bus to the CADA supermarket, the central market or to the boat stores downtown for parts. I had a spot of basal cell carcinoma removed from my nose by a surgeon for a very reasonable price here also.
We cruised the Bahamas and Caribbean before leav-ing for a circumnavigation in 1995. Back then there were also a lot of dinghy and outboard thefts. We would lock our 15–horsepower outboard to the stern pulpit and haul our dinghy out by a halyard on the side every night, and had a motion detector directed at each. We continued to do this every night every-where around the world for our 20 years full time cruising on the boat and we have never had a prob-lem. In areas of questionable security like Colombia, the Mosquito Coast, the Pacific side of Panama, the Malacca Straits and the Gulf of Aden, we always waited to travel with a companion boat. The trend toward violence and threats and maiming captains and crews who do not resist is new. We have never locked ourselves in our boat anywhere. We shall pur-chase another motion detector for the cockpit and hopefully not have a problem.
We hope to see you out cruising. Sandra and Paul Johnston Yacht Quarterdeck
Dear Compass,I wonder how many people will try the no-knead
bread recipe from Chris Doyle in the February issue of Compass. Only those with air-conditioned galleys and shares in cooking-gas companies will want to pre-heat an oven at 450°F for half an hour and then bake at that temperature, I should think. I stop reading every time I see a recipe that says “bake for 30 min-utes” (or more).
Could we have a series on recipes that can be done on stove tops and that do not need ingredients that are exotic to the Caribbean?Sue SimonsS/V Lorensu
Dear Sue,Someone sent us a great recipe for oven-free boat
bread, but we lost his name (sorry!) and are reluctant to publish the recipe without giving him the credit he deserves. If the contributor of that recipe would get in touch, we’ll be happy to share his recipe in an upcom-ing issue.CC
Dear Compass,It seems as if I will never get to make any corrections
to Douglas Pyle’s book, Clean Sweet Wind, and neither would I want to, a lovely piece of work. However, fur-ther to the caption that quoted Pyle under the photo of Mermaid in the March issue, I will give the facts here.
Mermaid was launched on January 31, 1968. She is a lot beamier than the 12 foot and 3 inches as taken from that famous half model of Mermaid in the old Mermaid Tavern in Carriacou, well over 13 feet actu-ally and she draws over 7 feet.
I ought to know, after 31 years, huh?John SmithMermaid of Carriacou
Dear Compass,After reading the article in the March 2008 issue of
Yachting Monthly, and comments about yacht attacks in St. Vincent, I forwarded it to a friend who lives on St. Vincent to get his opinion. Here is his response:
“Yes, it’s very unfortunate. I would not say, however, that these incidents are getting worse, more that when one bad incident occurs it tends to attract a lot of publicity. Where two or three incidents like this occur in the same area, as in this case, it’s very often the same group of people carrying out the crime. If you consider the thousands of yachts that come here every year, and the level of crime against visitors, the truth is that the percentage is still extremely low compared with most other countries, including other Caribbean islands (in particular St. Lucia, Antigua, St. Maarten and St. Thomas).
“Aware of the insecurity at Chateaubelair, we have always advised yachts not to stop there. We would, how-ever, disagree about Wallilabou and Cumberland where the worst I’ve ever encountered after 26 years has been ‘nuisance boat boys’ rather than aggression or crime.
“The Coast Guard has, over the past year, been step-ping up its activity and patrols, as have the local police, and the Government ministries have also taken these incidents very seriously and done what they humanly could to apprehend the perpetrators — usu-ally successfully. The last lot that got caught are now enjoying 20 years in prison, and for the nature of the prisons here, this is more akin to 150 years.
“Unfortunately crime exists everywhere and I’m afraid that here is no exception. I’m certainly not trying to play down this incident, but to put it more into perspective.”
As someone who has enjoyed these islands without incident (especially Wallilabou), I can only talk from my experiences. We never leave our boat unlocked, especially at night while onboard, just like our home in the States. As for the couple who were attacked on St. Martin, this would appear to be a random crime of opportunity that could happen anywhere in the world and I would say be more prone to happen in our home-towns than on a Caribbean island. Take their advice to be careful and vigilant at all times.
Hopefully these island governments have begun to realize that the increase of violent incidents will have a drastic effect on their economy and they better try harder to minimize these crimes.
In the meantime, keep your eyes open and be safe.John WilsonS/V Double Down
Dear Compass,I wish to respond to an article published in a recent
edition of Yachting Monthly and written by Dick Durham, which alleges that “a mini-crime-wave has hit St. Vincent & the Grenadines” with “vicious armed attacks on yachtsmen in the last six weeks”.
The article continued by further alleging that “other attacks have taken place in Petit St. Vincent, Union Island, Wallilabou and Young Island” and reports “a story of one yachting couple’s frightening experience at the hands of armed pirates”.
The article is based on a report written on January 4th by Steve Jones and communicated to a number of websites including Yachting Monthly, Noonsite and Net News. It gives an account of a violent attack by three armed men against himself and his wife on December 27th, while anchored off Chateaubelair. While Mr. Jones acknowledged Wallilabou as a “safe-ish” anchor-age, he proceeds to report on a supposed incident in which a gang of 20-plus armed men raided the bay recently and stole six dinghies and outboards in one night, purportedly well-prepared with wire cutters and other tools to accomplish their objectives.
While we sympathize with Mr. Jones and his family over the tragic misfortune that occurred at Chateaubelair, we unequivocally deny that any such event such as the dinghy raid described above occurred at Wallilabou Bay. On the contrary, while we have more than our fair share of “boat boys”, this bay has had no incidents of violence perpetrated against any visiting yachtsmen and only one dinghy has been lost in the last year and a half. Over the years, we have expended every effort to make Wallilabou a safe and pleasant anchorage.
Yachting Monthly is regarded by the fraternity of sailors as a distinguished, credible source of yachting information. Statements made in that publication have an indelible quality; once made, indictments will linger, irreversible in the minds of John Public. In our case, this will haunt us with deleterious effect for years to come. These falsehoods about Wallilabou have already created a furor of discussion in the regional media, blog sites and within the general com-munity. Blacklisting initiatives have also already been taken by some charter companies.
I kindly ask that Yachting Monthly investigate these allegations made in respect to Wallilabou in an effort to get to the truth in this matter and provide the opportunity for our exoneration.Yours faithfully,Stephen RussellManaging DirectorWallilabou Bay Resort Limited, St. Vincent —Continued on next page
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— Continued from previous page Dear Caribbean Compass,
I would like to make your readers aware of a break-in that occurred to my vessel, Anna Maria, in November 2007 in Woburn Bay along the south coast of Grenada. I was at my home in California when the incident occurred. The boat had been left on a so-called hurri-cane mooring, which I had rented from a local yacht management company.
In retrospect, it seems easy to believe that certain moorings may gain a reputation for securing the boats of absentee owners, and boats found on such moor-ings may be inviting targets for would-be thieves. I would caution your readers to think twice about securing their boats on hurricane moorings while they are away, because the moorings may be not so secure after all.Matthew CleggS/V Anna Maria
Dear Compass,A wee, white ball of fluff, nine years ago, it cost a
“mil” (1000 Bolivars, or about 67 US cents) in the local mercado in Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela. I asked the surrogate “owner” (a girl around ten years old) “gatita o gatito?” (Girl or boy kitten?) “Gatita” was her reply. A girl kitty! Weighing a kilo and being a Hispanic cat, I called her Milicent Kilo Mercado, a proper name for such a precious cat! From that came the nickname Mili.
At three months of age Milicent began to grow things only MILTON has! But he remained Mili to me always.
He was born to be a boat cat. He loved the flying fish that landed on the boat, even during passages at night. He was nimble on board but as a kitten I took him for dinghy rides and showed him the rope cat-ladder that always hung down into the water. He’d play with bait fish but once they were cut into bite-sized bits he’d enjoy his snack. He was always a fish lover!
He was quick to learn good manners, and where and where not to go. He also learned to play “fetch” with a rolled-up napkin, a game he enjoyed. At times he would carry on conversations with his terrycloth tur-tle, which he’d carry by its head. Later his Beanie Baby ocelot was another of his favorite pets.
He was a hunter and in one seven-day period he caught six birds but didn’t kill any of them; it was just a game. One put under my bed pillow and it wasn’t until making the bed the next morning that I found the small, still body. I at once put it outside on the bimini top and to my utter shock it flew away, no harm done!
Mili’s favorite place to sleep was at the head of my side of the bed with my hand resting on his back. Most recently he slept on my pillow with his body touching the top of my head. The pillow’s not the same without him. He seemed to need my body contact. He loved to have the top of his head stroked. Wherever I was, he was at my side; there was no such thing as privacy.
Mili was my most constant friend for nine years and as a companion he was the best!
After I picked him up from the vet’s where he’d passed away the night before, I had time to sit and stroke his head and to have Missi, my other cat, see him one last time, too. Then my friend called to say he was ready to take us out for a proper burial at sea. Straight out from my living room window, in the build-ing I now call home in Porlamar, Venezuela, beyond the boats at anchor, we stopped the dinghy. With a hand-held GPS we marked the spot where Mili’s earth-ly body now sits: 10°56.7 N, 63°49.9W. At 0939 on August 6th, 2007, and after one verse of Amazing Grace, we let the weighted bag overboard and so I said good-bye to my favorite boat cat Mili!Sandi PomeroyPorlamar, Margarita
Dear Compass Readers,Hello all from sunny Grenada. I came down here yes-
terday morning (February 24th) from Carriacou, sailing down the windward or eastern shore of Grenada. If any of you ever get the chance to do such a thing I highly recommend it. The windward sides of these islands get a lot of rain and the vegetation is much more lush. I fished the whole way and didn’t catch a thing.
I’ve spent the last month between Bequia and Carriacou. I met a total of 15 people from Martha’s Vineyard on Bequia and they were all on the island at the same time. I was sailing to Carriacou and who should pass me but Jeff Gibson on a charter boat with eight Vineyarders aboard. I just couldn’t shake them, so now I’m gonna make a run for it downwind.
I ran into some good people in Carriacou. My old buddy Speedy John was there on Gaucho. I put a dutchman in the bottom of his mizzenmast in a sweet little boatyard on the beach. Had a roof over it to keep off the sun and a cool breeze coming through all the time to keep it cool. I met a nice local named Hope who kept me stocked with local knowledge and a few fish for my supper. Met a Wylo sloop named Flower (I think) and found out Nick Skeats (designer of the Wylo) was headed up from Africa trying to make the Classic Yacht Regatta in April in Antigua. They said he left in late December so he could pop up any day.
There were a lot of sailing dinghies to race in Tyrell Bay, Carriacou, and I managed to beat them all. Only
one I haven’t beat is Dan’s of Spindrift. I beat him downwind but to weather he can point higher. I hope to see him the next time through and then we shall see for sure. Sometimes tactics are more important than speed. Saw Hutch and had fun sailing around with him almost every day I was there. I ran into Bananas and had a pizza with him.
When I pulled in here yesterday the Grenada Classic Yacht Regatta’s first race was finishing. I managed to cross the line second but I was coming the wrong way! Seems the race started in St. George’s. All those poor guys had to beat all the way here whereas I came in downwind. Anyway, Emma fits right in with the clas-sics. It’s kinda good I’m here as there are only a hand-ful of classic yachts in the regatta.
So now that I’ve reached the very bottom of the Windward Islands my close-reaching days are over for a while and I get to turn west and head downwind. It is 1400 miles to Roatan Island, Honduras. Course is due west — 270°. I have decided that with all the mug-gings happening in Venezuela at the present I’m gonna give the whole place a miss. I may stop in Bonaire, as it is Dutch and on the way. That’s 400 nautical miles down the course. I can get ice and yogurt there. I am estimating ten to 15 days for the passage. I plan to stay about 80 miles north of the Venezuelan islands and if I’m feeling good about everything I’ll bypass Bonaire. Dennis White Yacht Emma Goldman
Dear Compass,Just wanted use this forum to say thanks to the
employees of Basil’s Bar, Mustique, and Dr. Freddy for their help. I was miserable and in pain, suffering with my first fever blister — which turned out to be major outbreak. My husband went ashore looking for a phar-macy and walked into Basil’s Bar for information. The bartender called Dr. Freddy and he opened the clinic on a Saturday evening to see me. One of the waiters at Basil’s drove us to Dr. Freddy’s clinic and waited to bring us back to our dinghy. I was so grateful for all of this help and kindness.
With medication in hand, we departed the next day for Canouan and continued on our trip down island. We could never have done it without their help and kindness. My US doctor recommended that I be on the prescribed medication longer than I had pills. My husband went to the clinic on Canouan and they pro-vided the additional meds. Great care and kindness on two islands!
Our five-month sailing odyssey has taken us from Pass Christian, Mississippi, all the way to Aruba. Have found your publication most informative and helpful. We used the info in your publication to safely navigate the Venezuelan waters. Is Compass available on line?Thanks,Monica MontagnetFidelis II
Dear Monica,Thanks for sharing your positive experience.Compass is available on line. An abridged version of
the monthly print edition is at www.caribbeancompass.com. See our website also for details of on-line subscrip-tions to the entire publication.CC
Dear Compass Readers,Last year while visiting Las Aves Barlovento,
Venezuela, we and friends on S/V Jezebel and S/V Forewinds spent hours collecting and bagging cans and bottles left on the beaches by other cruisers. We took all the cans and bottles and disposed of them properly out at sea 12 miles off shore. At this time cruisers also left fires burning when they sailed away which almost destroyed the mangroves in the number one anchorage.
You can imagine how disappointed we are returning after nine months and finding the beaches full of cans and bottles. One beach in particular in the number four anchorage where some boats had burnt garbage and left dozens of Euro Shopper beer cans, wine bot-tles and glass fancy preserve jars. Not the fishermen: they don’t have access to the Euro Shopper beer sold only as far as we know in Curaçao.
If you are going to burn garbage on the beaches please separate it first and take the cans and glass away and dispose of it properly.
These islands are very special and we feel privileged to spend time here.
Please, please help to preserve this fragile ecosystem.Keith and Vivienne KirmondS/V Victoria 2Dear Compass,
[Editor’s note: This is further to Scott Nichols’ letter in the January issue of Compass, warning other boaters to beware of unbuoyed, floating, one-and-a-half-inch polypropylene mooring lines which were placed by a liveaboard dive vessel operating in the Grenadines. There was a response in the February issue from Peter Hughes of Wind Dancer (Grenada) Ltd., who operates what was assumed to be the dive vessel in question.] —Continued on next page
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— Continued from previous page In regards to Peter Hughes of Wind Dancer, your apology for the missing mooring ball was not neces-sary. Everyone loses a marker buoy some time. But when this happens, the riser should sink. Your moor-ing is a black floating poly riser and when the ball is gone it stays there floating but unseen. Flying five sails on a 75-foot schooner, I ran over one of these floating lines leaving Isle De Ronde three hours after you left, fouling my prop and leaving my boat dead in the water.Scott NicholsSchooner Satori
Dear Compass,I’d like to respond to “Concerned Citizen” who in the
March edition of the Compass worried about tourists being poisoned when eating food prepared by “school drop-outs, young boys and ex-convicts who look for an easy way to survive”.
I believe it is a great way of trying to survive, by sup-plying the yachts with a service they obviously are asking for. I do not for the life of me understand why it would be more dangerous to eat a lobster cooked by a school drop-out than eating it at an overpriced res-taurant where the seriously underpaid staff don’t get the incentive or training they need to care for the cus-tomers’ well-being.
And I would happily buy a hundred lobsters barbe-cued by an ex-convict if that helps him to put food on the table for his family, rather than seeing him forced to go back to whatever criminal activity he was involved in before, probably at the time also trying to put food on the table.
I am sure that the yachting community is capable of making their own judgments whether they trust a stranger to prepare their food or not. At least they get to see the face of the person cooking, and they might even also know his name and the name of his dinghy. If some of these service providers are a bit overbearing, let us then address it on a individual level instead of trying to put down a whole community of working men and women.
“Concerned Citizen” states they are looking for an easy way to survive. I would say they are looking for a way to survive. And any job that keeps them away from growing or selling marijuana, stealing or begging because their fellow citizens believe that the jobs are reserved for them, deserves our respect and contin-ued support.
I suspect that “Concerned Citizen” is really a restau-rant-owner. Why would he/she otherwise inform us in the same letter that restaurant sales have gone down 50 percent? The reason some restaurants are not doing well in St. Vincent & the Grenadines is because they are not providing the quality of food, or type of food, or price level, that the tourists want, like and accept. I scarcely eat out in SVG simply because I can cook the food much better in my own house, instead of having a European youngster in his twenties playing “international chef” in the kitchen and charging me an arm and a leg for it.Please sign me,Another Concerned Citizen of St. Vincent & the Grenadines
Dear Compass Readers,We want to hear from YOU!Please include your name, boat name or address, and
a way we can contact you (preferably by e-mail) if clarification is required.
We do not publish individual consumer complaints or individual regatta results complaints. (Kudos are okay!) We do not publish anonymous letters; however, your name may be withheld from print at your request.
Letters may be edited for length, clarity and fair play.Send your letters to:[email protected] fax (784) 457-3410or Compass Publishing Ltd.Readers’ ForumBox 175BQBequiaSt. Vincent & the Grenadines
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ST. THOMAS YACHT SALESCompass Point Marina, 6300 Est. Frydenhoj, Suite 28,
St. Thomas, U.S.V.I. 00802
Tel: (340) 779-1660 Fax: (340) 779-2779 [email protected]
Sail37’ 2001 Bavaria Sloop, 3 strms, Yanmar diesel $ 79,50040’ 1986 Hunter Legend roomy, aft cockpit $ 69,00040’ 1987 O’Day Sloop, Westerbeke, 2 strms $ 60,00043’ 1995 Hunter 430, stepped transom, 2 strms $119,000
Power14’ 2006 Aquascan Jetboat, 160HP Yamaha $ 34,90031’ 1999 Sea Ray Sundancer, new engines, 2005 $ 79,90032’ 1996 Carver 325, twin crusaders great condition $ 99,00038’ 1999 Sea Ray Sundancer, mercruisers, 18 kts, $167,000
Call, fax or visit our website for a complete list of boats for salewww.stthomasyachts.com
44’ 1982 Ta Chiao CT $89,900
33’ 1973 Pearson 10M Sloop, $33,500
CREW VACANCIES!email: [email protected]
TradeWinds Cruise Club operate a fleet of catamarans across six destinations in the Caribbean.We are the fastest growing charter company, operating TERM CHARTERS, all inclusive, 7 days.
We are looking for crew, mainly teams in the form of a Captain and a Chef/Hostess. We prefer couples that are married OR have been living together for at least a year. The nature of the job is such that the better the understanding and teamwork between Captain and Chef the more successful your charters will be. Requirements: Captain with a Skipper’s licence. Chef/Hostess with a basic understanding of cooking. Dive master/ instructor for either the Captain and/or Chef is a plus. We offer full training onsite in the Caribbean.
This is a FUN job with great earning potential. If you are willing to work hard and have a positive disposition to life this could be your DREAM job. Anyone with an interest is welcome to apply. If you would like more information about this job or send your CV to us, please use this email address:
[email protected] by mail to: Bequia Marina, P.O.Box 194BQ, Port Elizabeth,
Bequia, St Vincent & the GrenadinesTel. St Vincent +784 457 3407 Tel. St Maarten +599 5510550
Letter of the Month
Dear Compass,Yacht racing in the Caribbean is thriving, but many Caribbean regattas include
wide varieties of boats in one class. This sometimes leads not only to quarrels about handicap ratings, but occasionally to dangerous situations.
About 30 years ago the word “overtaking” disappeared from the yacht racing rules in an effort to simplify and clarify the rules. As long as boats are of similar size and speed, the elimination of the old rule “overtaking boat keep clear” has caused few problems for those who know the rules.
However, as explained by John Doerr in his excellent article on racing rules enti-tled “Proper Course” in the January 2008 issue of Yachting World magazine, when you have boats of different sizes with considerable differences in speed, sailing on the same legs of a course and rounding the same marks, things can get very compli-cated. Even those who know the rules can interpret them differently, causing confu-sion and, in some cases, accidents.
I personally know of five serious accidents involving a much faster big boat over-taking a slower, smaller boat and causing serious damage. One smaller boat, a ketch, lost both masts. Another, a yawl, suddenly became a sloop. In the third case, the smaller boat’s mast tore the larger boat’s main, opening it up luff to leach. But the leach line held, almost capsizing and dismasting the smaller boat. In the final two cases, the smaller boats were sunk. If I personally know five serious accidents, how many have happened worldwide?
I not only know of five disasters, but over the years I have witnessed at least a dozen near-disasters — all caused by larger, faster boats overtaking smaller, slower boats in tight situations.
In all cases all boats were competently crewed by crews that knew the racing rules, but since the word “overtaking” has disappeared from the racing rules, as soon as an overlap exists the overtaking boat has rights that complicate the issue.
In the case of the small boat opening up the sail of the larger boat with its mast,
the helmsman and tactician of the larger boat were an ACC helmsman and tactician. Not only that, but when they were disqualified, they later complained bitterly at the bar about the incompetence of the protest committee, despite that fact that some members of the protest committee were highly regarded international judges.
In the light of the accidents and near accidents, many competitors who have sailed in regattas where there is a great difference in speed in the competing boats feel that a relevant rule should be inserted in the racing instructions.
The inserted rule should be something to the following effect: The overtaking boat must keep clear. If there is a protest or collision, the onus is on the overtaking boat to prove that she used her best efforts to keep clear.
Some race committee members with whom I have discussed this feel that it is not permissible to alter the racing rules, but I have checked with two senior interna-tional judges who say that this can be done. They say it is not changing the rules, it is merely adding to the existing rules.
If this were done, it would do much to eliminate the collisions caused by larger, faster boats overtaking smaller, slower boats.
Don StreetIreland
In the case of the small boat opening up the sail of the larger boat with its mast,
The overtaking boat must keep clear. If there is a protest or collision,
the onus is on the overtaking boat to prove that she used her best efforts to keep clear’
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We were anchored in Wallilabou Bay, St. Vincent, with a stern line tied to a palm tree on the beach. One morning I laughed when my nine-year-old son said:
“Dad, those fishermen are laying their net around us!”“Oh, don’t worry son,” I said, “I’m sure they know what they’re doing.”For the time being I paid no more attention, until ten minutes later, with a rap on
the hull, I heard:“Hey mon, pass me de end of yo’ anchor chain.”Sure enough, the net which had been launched from the beach on one side of us,
rowed out in an arc and landed on the other side of us, had now been hauled in fairly tightly and the only thing preventing the completion of this communal fishing venture was the fact that we were anchored squarely in the middle. The spokesman for the group assured me:
“No problem, mon, jus’ pass me de end of yo’ chain and we go’ pass de net under yo’ keel.”
Now there were two reasons that I wasn’t going to pass him the bitter end of my anchor chain. Firstly, there remained about 30 meters of chain in the chain locker, which I really didn’t fancy pulling out and passing to him, even if I thought that he could stand the weight of it, balanced on his small rowing boat, as he was. Secondly, with the beach only 20 meters astern of us, I really didn’t want to hand him the only thing that was holding us off, namely the chain and anchor! So I swore at him a lot.
“Okay, mon, de other ting we go’ do is we go’ lift yo’ anchor over de net, so we can pull de net under yo’ keel.”
“I forbid you to touch the anchor,” I said, swearing some more, as he proceeded to jump overboard, attach a rope to our anchor, pull it up and dump it unceremoni-ously beyond the net. Sure enough, the group on the beach hauled the net under us and successfully landed their catch!
Meanwhile, we buoyed and cast off the stern line, lifted and re-laid the anchor and
as we came back in astern, I was in such a rage that I managed to tangle the buoyed stern line in the propeller!
There is often a lesson to be learnt from situations such as these. I feel that in this case the lesson must be:
Don’t swear at people, it doesn’t help! In front of all his friends the spokesman could not have backed down and removed
his net. I should have realised this and worked with him, perhaps by laying out the small kedge anchor over his net, before lifting the main anchor.
WHAT’S ON MY MIND
‘You want me to do what?’
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Bequia
Antigua
Azores Grenada
Dominica
Curaçao
Martinique
Guadeloupe
Caribbean Compass Market Place
SAILMAKING, RIGGING, ELECTRONICS
Grenada Marine • Spice Island MarineTel/Fax (473) [email protected]
Boatyard Le Marin Martinique
Phone (+596) 596 74 77 [email protected]
www.carenantilles.com
Centre de Carenage 97290 Le MarinTel: +596 (0) 596 74 74 80 Fax: +596 (0) 596 74 79 16 [email protected]
THE SPECIALIST FOR BOAT MAINTENANCE
IN MARTINIQUE
For a safe berth…SERU BOCA
MARINAWe sell
and service Yamaha engines
TechNick Ltd.Engineering, fabrication and
welding. Fabrication and repair ofstainless steel and aluminium items.
Nick Williams, ManagerTel: (473) 536-1560/435-7887
S.I.M.S. Boatyard, True Blue, Grenada [email protected]
Cruising Rally March 29 -
April 20, 2008e-mail: [email protected]
www.transcaraibes.comTel: + 590 (0) 690 494 590
TRANSCARAIBES 2008Guaeloupe to Cuba
Flyingfish Ventures Ltd Marine Surveyors, Grenada
Marine Survey throughout the Caribbean
PURCHASE – INSURANCE - DAMAGEBob GoodchildAccredited Marine SurveyorSociety of Accredited Marine SurveyorsRYA Ocean Yachtmaster (Commercial)Accreditation - American Boat and Yacht Council
Tel: Grenada (+1 473) 407 4388 [email protected]
Voiles AssistanceDidier and Maria
LE MARIN/MARTINIQUESails & Canvas (repairs & fabrication)
located at Carenantilles dockyardOpen Monday to Friday 8-12am 2-6pm
Saturday by appointmenttel/fax: (596) 596 74 88 32
e-mail: [email protected]
continued on next page
LE MARIN, MARTINIQUE • GRENADAwww.caraibe-greement.fr [email protected]: +(596) 596 74 8033 Cell: (596) 696 27 66 05
RIGGING
SHIPCHANDLER
MID ATLANTIC YACHT SERVICESPT-9900-144 HORTA / FAIAL, AZORES
TEL +351 292 391616FAX +351 292 [email protected]
www.midatlanticyachtservices.comProviding all vital
Services & Repairs for Trans-Atlantic YachtsElectronics, Chandlery, Rigging
Bunkered Fuel (+10,000lt)EU-VAT (15%) Importation
UNIQUE IN DOMINICARoseau & PortsmouthTel: 767-448-2705 Fax: 767-448-7701Dockmaster Tel: 767-275-2851 VHF: 16
The Dominica Marine Center is the home of the Dominica Yacht Club
and your center for:
• Yacht Mooring Anchorage • Grocery Store & Provisioning • Bakery (Sukie’s Bread Company) • Water at dock • Fuel (Unleaded / Diesel) • Ice • Yacht Chandlery agents - Budget Marine /Sea Choice Products Mercury Marine / Yanmar Marine • LP Gas (propane) refills • Showers & Toilets (WC) • Garbage Disposal • Security • Telephone & Fax • Mobile Phone Rental / SIM Top Up • Laundry WiFi Internet • Beach Bar • Nearby Restaurants • Taxi & Tour Operators • Whale Watching & Sport Fishing • Light Engine and Boat Repair • Customs / Immigration Clearance Information • Visa / Master Card accepted
� TEAK US$10 – 11 / BF
�MARINE PLY �HARDWOOD
Caribbean Woods Bequia, St. Vincent
Phone: (784) 457-3000 [email protected]
� TEAK US$10 – 11 / BF
�MARINE PLY �HARDWOODCaribbbbbbbebebean WoWoWWoW ods
Bequia, St. Vincent Phone: (784) 457-3000
Tel: (784) 458-3758
Come and find us amongst the trees!
Candlelight Dinners Monday to Saturday
Please Reserve!
in Lower Bay, Bequia
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Caribbean Compass Market PlaceCaribbean-wide
To advertise in Caribbean Compass Market Place, contact your island agent (see list on page 4) or
contact Tom at (784) 457 3409 [email protected]
Marine Distributors www.IslandWaterWorld.com
[email protected] Thomas, St Maarten,
St Lucia, GrenadaP: 599-544-5310 F: 599-544-3299
Barefoot Yacht Charters & Marine Centre
Blue Lagoon, St VincentBareboats – Fully Crewed Yachts –
ASA Sailing School – Full Service Marine Centre
1-784-456-9526 / [email protected]
Trinidad
Trinidad
St VincentTHIS COULD BE
YOUR MARKET PLACE AD
Book it now:[email protected] contact your local island agent
St Maarten
Packages Pick – up call: + (599) 553-3850 / + (590) 690-222473
Int. 001-3057042314 E-mail: [email protected]
CIRExpress COURIER SERVICES St. Maarten/ St. Martin, collect
and deliver door to door
[email protected]: (0) 596 71 41 61 Fax: (0) 596 71 77
Martinique Le Marin
Accastillage
Shipchandler
Martinique
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Admiral Yacht Insurance UK 49
Anjo Insurance Antigua 8
Antigua Classic Regatta Antigua 8
Art Fabrik Grenada 37
B & C Fuel Dock Petite Martinique 43
Barefoot Yacht Charters St. Vincent 35
Basil’s Bar Mustique 45
Bay Island Yachts Trinidad 51
Bequia Marina Bequia 44
Bogles Round House Carriacou 43
Budget Marine Sint Maarten 2
BVI Yacht Sales Tortola 51
By Design Antigua 47
Camper & Nicholsons Grenada 24
Captain Gourmet Union Island 46
Caraibe Greement Martinique 13
Caraibe Yachts Guadeloupe 49
Carenantilles Martinique 25
Carene Shop Martinique 32
Cooper Marine USA 42
Corea's Food Store Mustique Mustique 44
Curaçao Marine Curaçao 6
Diesel Outfitters St. Maarten 42
Discovery Marigot St.Lucia 26
Dockwise Yacht Transport Martinique 12
Dopco Travel Grenada 10
Doris Fresh Food Bequia 44
Down Island Real Estate Carriacou 55
Doyle Offshore Sails Tortola 3
Doyle's Guides USA 41
Echo Marine - Jotun Special Trinidad 27
Errol Flynn Marina Jamaica 20
Falmouth Harbour Marina Antigua 21
Food Fair Grenada 46
Frangipani Hotel Bequia 36
Fred Marine Guadeloupe 16
Gourmet Foods St. Vincent 45
Grenada Marine Grenada 31
Grenadine Island Villas Bequia 22
Grenadines Sails Bequia 34
GRPro-Clean Martinique 49
Iolaire Enterprises UK 47/48
Island Dreams Grenada 37
Island Water World Sint Maarten 56
Johnson Hardware St. Lucia 15
Jones Maritime St. Croix 11
Jordan Boats UK 51
KP Marine St. Vincent 48
Lagoon Marina Hotel St. Vincent 27
Lagooniville St. Thomas 41
LIAT Caribbean 55
Lulley's Tackle Bequia 34
Mac's Pizza Bequia 46
McIntyre Bros. Ltd Grenada 37
Navimca Venezuela 36
Northern Lights Generators Tortola 28
Peake Yacht Brokerage Trinidad 50
Perkins Engines Tortola 23
Petit St. Vincent PSV 40
Ponton du Bakoua Martinique 32
Port Hole Restaurant Bequia 37
Prickly Bay Marina Grenada 33
Renaissance Marina Aruba 18
Salty Dog Sports Bar Bequia 43
Santa Barbara Resorts Curaçao 7
Schip-O-Case Guadeloupe 48
Sea and Sail Guadeloupe 36
Sea Services Martinique 14
Seminole Marine Guadeloupe 17
Shelter Bay Marina Panama 19
Silver Diving Carriacou 43
Simpson Bay Marina St. Maarten 10
Soper's Hole Marina Tortola 11
Spice Island Marine Grenada 30
St. Thomas Yacht Sales St. Thomas 50
Superwind Germany 41
SVG Air St. Vincent 36
SVG Tourism St. Vincent 5
Sweet Cry Antigua Antigua 9
Tikal Arts & Crafts Grenada 47
Trade Winds Cruising Bequia 50
True Blue Bay Grenada 31
Turbulence Sails Grenada 30
Tyrrel Bay Yacht Haulout Carriacou 33
Vemasca Venezuela 32
Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbour Virgin Gorda 27
Volvo Marinique 29
Wallace & Co Bequia 34
Wallilabou Anchorage St. Vincent 43
Xanadu Marine Venezuela 33
ADVERTISERS INDEX
ADVERTISER LOCATION PG# ADVERTISER LOCATION PG# ADVERTISER LOCATION PG# ADVERTISER LOCATION PG#
CLASSIFIEDS
BOATS FOR SALE
VENUS 46, 1984 KETCH fiber-glass, gc, new engine, very well equipped, excellent live aboard and cruiser US$199,000, lying St. Lucia. For more info and pictures Tel (596)696907429 E-mail [email protected]
36’ INTERMARINE power boat, 2 x Yamha 250 Saltwater Series OB’s, cabin w/head, new canopies/upholstery throughout, deck shower, GPS, lovely condition and runs beauti-fully. Fantastic buy at US$60,000 Tel (784) 457-5302 E-mail [email protected]
1986 Beneteau 51 Nice con-dition, plenty of new upgrades, ready to sail, located Palm Island, SVG. Info on www.artandsea.com. Tel: (784) 458-8829 E-mail: [email protected]
WATKINS 27 SLOOP 1979 Yanmar diesel, shoal draft, sleeps 5 with V-berth, settee and dbl quarter berth, 6'2" headroom. Lying St. Vincent. Contact Gildas Courrier Tel (784) 432-1767 E-mail [email protected]
56ft MIKADO KETCH 1975 Perkins 106hp Interior/exteri-or refit Nov. ‘07, 4 dbl cabins, good sails, lying in Martinique 145,000 Euros E-mail [email protected]
FAMOUS POTATOES 2005 Admiral 38 Catamaran. For Sale Summer 2008. You can follow her adventure now atweb.mac.com/famouspotatoes2
43’ CUSTOM FIBERGLASS POWERBOAT “Hallelujah” 2 x Detroit diesel 8V71. Great fishing or dive boat, structurally sound but needs some mechanical/cosmetic work. Solar panels, Furuno radar, short wave/Ham radios. Located Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou US$30,000 ONO E-mail [email protected]
GRAAL 49 CATAMARAN 4 guest cabins w/heads, gour-met galley up, large salon w/settee and bar area comfort-ably accomodates 8 persons, crew cabin. Located Grenada $275,000 info and photos www.graall990.fr
PACIFIC SEACRAFT CREALOCK 34 highly regard-ed blue water cruiser US$75K Details on www.petetheno-mad.com Tel (473) 415-1026
MISC. FOR SALE
MASTS - TURBULENCE GRENADA One new Selden 17m inmast furler/ 2 spreader sets/ steps suitable for monohull. Tel (473) 439-4495/415-8271E-mail [email protected]
36HP YANMAR OUTBOARD DIESEL Trinidad Tel (868) 683-9135 E-mail [email protected]
2 X 54FT FIBERGLASS CATAMARAN HULLS Tel (868) 683-9135 E-mail [email protected]
BOATS FOR SALE IN TRINIDAD Tel (868) 739-6449www.crackajacksailing.net
AVON 11FT JET SKI DINGHY 84hp, 2 years old. US$10,000 OBO E-mail [email protected]
PROPERTY FOR SALE
FRIENDSHIP BAY, BEQUIA Lovely 1250 sq ft. cottage, 100 yards from beach. 2 master bedrooms, 1 guest bedroom, full kitchen, laun-dry, level with road - no stairs! 12,558 sq ft of land, fenced with mature fruit trees. US$320,000, Term rental available. E-mail [email protected]
CARRIACOU, ONE ACRE LOTS and multi acre tracts. Great views overlooking Southern Grenadines and Tyrrel Bay www.caribtrace.com
BEQUIA PROPERTIES A clas-sic Belmont villa in 1 acre 2,000,000US, The Village Apartments Business 1,890,000US, Admiralty Bay 900,000US, Spring Villa 1,750,000US LowerBay 1.600,000US, Friendship 320,000US, Moonhole 750,000US, relax & enjoy Bequia life.Tel (784) 455 0969 E-mail [email protected] www.grenadinevillas.com
BEQUIA, Lower Bay, Bells Point, House and Land. Serious buyers only. Sale by owner. Call (784) 456 4963 after 6pm. E-mail [email protected]
SERVICES
PUERTO LA CRUZ, VENZ. INSURANCE SURVEYS, elec-trical problems and yacht deliveries. Tel Cris Robinson (58) 416-3824187 E-mail [email protected]
BEQUIA HOMEMADE BREADS & Cakes made fresh every day! Wholewheat, multigrain, banana bread, herbs & flax, butter cres-cents. To place order Tel (784) 457-3527/433-3008 E-mail [email protected] Orders are delivered FREE
NIMROD’S RUM SHOP, GRENADA Eggs, bread, cheese, ice on sale. Taxi service available, propane tank fill-up, personal laundry service. Happy Hour every day from 5-6pm Moonlight party every full moon. VHF 16
BEQUIA - BEQUIA CANVAS Interior/exterior/customized canvas special i s t Tel (784) 457-3291 E-mail [email protected]
CARIBBEAN VIRTUAL OFFICE providing concierge, cater-ing, errand services, mail management and forward-ing, bill payment, purchas-ing, sourcing, reservations and a host of other services. Tel (473) 404-2707
ST. VINCENT - NZIMBU ARTS & CRAFTS for high quality indig-enous banana craft and djembe drum Tel (784) 457-1677/531-2897 www.nzimbu-browne.com E-mail [email protected]
UNDERWATER DIVING SERVICES salvage/emer-gency/moorings/lift bags. All underwater services Tel (473) 537-9193/538-4608 E-mail [email protected]
WATERMAKERS Complete systems, membranes, spares and service available at Curacao and Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela. Check our prices at www.watercraftwatermaker.com In PLC Tel (58) 416-3824187
WANTED
SERVICE ADMINISTRATOR needed for busy Marine Industrial Service business in Road Town, Tortola, BVI. Must have excellent organi-zational skills, ability to write service reports and prepare warranty claims, strong communicational skills, proj-ect management and cost accounting skills, and the ability to handle quality
control issues. Mechanical background with marine experience preferred. Fax CV (284) 494-6972 E-mail [email protected]
SVG-MAINTENANCE MANAGER Must have extensive knowl-edge in the yachting industry, 3 years experience in a mana-gerial position, experience in mechanics, electronics & electrical, fiberglass work & rigging, good oral & written communication skills and be able to work, train and super-vise others. Boat building skills & experience will be an asset.The successful applicant responsible for managing fleet up to ninety yachts. E-mail [email protected]
FIRST MATE POSITION OFFERED on 76’ private yacht for an experienced and quaified seaman avail-able now with Captain license, radio, radar, STCW 95 Basic Fire Fighting, Personal Survival Techs, First Aid, Personal Safety & Social Responsibility. Attractive salary, E-mail resumé, pic-ture and contact details E-mail [email protected] or call Frances for interview Tel (784) 457-0736
SVG-CHEF Primary responsibili-ties ensure a high quality prod-uct, create a positive, upbeat environment for our guest & staff, train & develop staff, deliver a great service experi-ence to our guests, maintain proper cost controls. Job qual-ifications, international cuisine, 2 years experience as a Head Chef. E-mail [email protected]
FEMALE WITH NEW 44’ CATAMARAN seeks friend with sailing experience to cruise Caribbean & share expenses. Tel (784) 496-1393 E-mail [email protected]
SALESPERSON NEEDED for busy marine chandlery in St. Thomas, VI. Experience in marine retail and/or boat maintenance preferred. Must be US citizen. See www.budgetmarine.com for detailed job description. Please send resume E-mail [email protected]
RIGGING TECHNICIAN with experience needed for
Turbulence Sails Prickly Bay loca-tion Tel (473) 439-4495 E-mail [email protected]
INDEPENDENT REFIT SPECIALIST needed for 55’ trimaran. Rigging/mechani-cal/cosmetic work, In the water, Bequia .E-mail [email protected]
TORTOLA - ARAGORNS STUDIO looking for 2 employ-ees.Welder/Workshop man-ager and shop assistant required at our busy Art Studio in Trellis Bay, BVI.Ideal candidates are a couple with artistic inclination living on their own boat and look-ing for shore side employ-ment in a US$ economy. Still interested to hear from a lone welder! Info contact Aragorn Tel (284) 495-1849 E-mail [email protected]
MARINE TECHNICIAN WANTED IMMEDIATELY Respected Marine Engineering Co, in Grenada seeking all around experi-enced technician for diesel, electrical, electronics, water makers & refrigera-tion. Ideal for cruiser or independent tech looking for the stability of an estab-lished company in Grenada CV to; E-mail [email protected] (473) 439-2049
CLASSIFIED ADS
EC$1/US 40¢ per word – include name, address and numbers in count. Line draw-ings/photos accompanying classifieds are EC$20/US$8.
KEEP THE ISLANDS
BEAUTIFUL…
Dispose of your
garbage properly!!
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CARRIACOU REAL ESTATE
Land and houses for saleFor full details see our website:
www.islandvillas.comor contact Carolyn Alexander at
Down Island Ltde-mail: [email protected]
Tel: (473) 443 8182 Fax: (473) 443 8290
We also handle Villa Rentals &Property Management on Carriacou
Marine Conservation Education Campaign for Youth
On March 25th the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) announced a new educational initia-tive in the Caribbean region with the launch of its “Live Free in the Sea” campaign in partnership with the Eastern Caribbean Cetacean Network (ECCN).
The “Live Free in the Sea” 2008 program will educate young people in Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines, Grenada, and Tobago about how their actions on land can affect beaches, reefs and marine life.
ECCN island coordinators will be partnering with primary and secondary schools to conduct activities under this theme. The program on each island will consist of environmental education, environmental action, and an artistic component (for example, music, performing arts, functional or aesthetic art). Children will participate in lectures, discussions and activities on the coastal and marine environment, their inhabit-ants and how their actions impact them. Whales and dolphins, sea turtles and coral reefs and mangroves will be topics of focus.
In Tobago, children took part in a beach clean-up on Turtle Beach, where the litter collected will be recycled to make functional art. This is the main nesting site of endangered leatherback and hawksbill sea turtles on Tobago. In Saint Lucia, children will participate in a whale and dolphin watching tour, and research and write a children’s book for the school library on whales and dolphins that migrate through their waters. In Grenada, participants in the program will produce a video that will be distributed to the local cable chan-nel. In Bequia, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines, chil-dren will take part in a beach clean-up, where col-lected bottlecaps will be used to make a large sea-themed mural for display in the community.
For more information contact ECCN Director Nathalie Ward at [email protected].
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Published by Compass Publishing Limited, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, and printed by Trinidad Publishing Company Limited
